


In The Briars

by Gilrien



Category: Celtic Mythology, Faerie Folklore, Irish Mythology, Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, BDSM, Bad BDSM Etiquette, Canon Disabled Character, Canon Queer Relationship, Canon Trans Character, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, Disability, Druids, F/F, F/M, Fair Folk, Gay Sex, M/M, Magitech, Mental Coercion, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Elves, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original work - Freeform, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Queer Themes, Rape/Non-con Elements, Rough Sex, Sexual Coercion, Supernatural Elements, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Urban Fantasy, Werewolves, Witches, fae, fey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-09-21 16:46:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17046911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gilrien/pseuds/Gilrien
Summary: A cold moon glittered over the swirling spires at the cities' heart. There were castles, meeting houses, libraries, plenty of things that were made to shine with there own luminescence. Here the buildings were lit by fairy lights and candles. Nothing shined on the dull stone and wood.It was going to be a late spring. Probably some argument or another had given winter the edge this year. The tower of the Winter Court spiraled up like a spout of water from a fountain frozen in place somewhere off in the distance, radiating a chill through the air.It was cool in here with the window open, but she didn't mind. The others often joked that she was hot blooded. Witches were often thought to not be fully human, and while most evidence pointed to the contrary, she wondered if there was a little bit of truth in that.Kailyn pulled the light shawl around her shoulders tighter. Not because of the cold, but because the fabric felt nice. It was grounding. It was a reminder that she was here. Her soul wasn’t out wandering the back alleys, buildings, or even forest beyond. It was home.That was only a small comfort though. Because while she hadn't seen it, she knew it was out there.The banshee was out tonight.





	1. Cold Knights

She was taking a train downtown when she saw it. It was late at night and there was barely anyone on the train. Once most of the passengers got off at the last stop they had passed she saw it though. The glamor on this one was insane. It barely registered, which was one of the worst tells ever. At least this time she had Rowan with her. Even if he was occasionally brash (more than occasionally honestly) he was a decent fighter.

  
The question now was, whether to actually try to fight? Tailing them might be the better option, assuming they don’t notice. But that would be hard in this one.  
There had been several murders lately. Most members of the Winter court. Not that that was something she cared about. They could all go jump in a hole to the abyss for all she cared. But she thought she sensed a little bit of a chill about this person. If they

were actually from the Winter court there were really not many reasons for them to be out here. And she was more than a little bit curious.  
Kailyn brought out a notepad that she used mostly for groceries, and wrote a quick note that was easy to show to Rowan without much movement. He nodded and even smirked a little. Of course he’d like a challenge. Tonight was not the night she wanted one though. She was tired enough as is. But since the last guy they tailed really quickly turned up dead she figured she’d follow this one at least. The Winter court had been making more moves lately, moves that had caused a lot of problems between different parts of the city, particularly the poorer parts. Like the ones she lived in. It was enough that they kept dragging resources and people, especially people, out of any place they wished. But at this point between the Courts and the Ruling Crown Prince, everything had gone to shit.

  
The train finally trundled above ground. The skyline was all low buildings in this area. No palace and no grand meeting house. Just three story buildings at most. Home. It bothered her just a bit that it seemed this one was going so far out of the major parts of the city. Something like this never bothered to get too far out of the nicer parts of town without a reason. Usually kidnapping.

  
Third to last stop they got off. Kailyn exited the nearest door, which thankfully was far enough away to not seem suspicious. Unfortunately since it was a small station with only two exits they had to walk slow. It wasn’t the best area to tail someone in anyway. There weren’t major roads around here. Nearby yes, but not close enough for it to be completely believable that they were all going the same way.

  
It was about four blocks down that she knew something was wrong. The person in front of them had not glanced back, or seemed bothered that they were there. But their head jerked to the side very suddenly.

  
She was readying herself for an attack when she felt it. Another presence, and definitely one of the Winter Court’s guards. It felt too powerful to be anything else. But that was wrong. They never bothered to come this far out. Not a guard. Not unless it was an escort.

  
She tugged Rowan behind a bush, and definitely in time. Three other shapes peeled themselves out of the shadows, then two more.

  
“The f-”

  
Kailyn clapped a hand over his mouth. Both of them had night vision well enough to see what followed everything well enough. But the eerie thing was the way the figure spoke to the guards.

  
“Please go back.” A weary voice rasped, “I don’t want anything to do with you.”

  
It was one of the most pathetic pleas she had ever heard.

  
They didn’t seem entirely aware of what was going on. But all six figures charged them at once. That was probably what caused her to act. Whoever it was didn’t want a fight. And they were badly outnumbered. She charged the first guard nearest her. Of course it didn’t come as a surprise to them. They must have known they were there. Probably just thought they were bystanders though, because they didn’t block well.

  
The spell sword she drew from her necklace solidified as she swung down. Her opponent staggered.

  
They corrected quickly enough but not before she drove her blade into their shoulder.

  
But she withdrew it quickly as they lunged at her. That was the problem with fae guards, wearing them down took a while, and chances were you’d go down before they did.  
She’d fought enough of them to know when to not bother with a strike she could have otherwise landed, not unless it was going to maim or kill.

  
The same was unfortunately not true for her though, and a slash across her arm reminded her of that.

  
She lashed out in a wide arc, forcing them back.

  
But they just lunged again.

  
She blocked one, two, three strikes in quick succession. Each one making her step further and further back.

  
It was right before she realized she was at the curb that her fought slid backward.

  
The guard’s sword careened toward her head.

  
She leaned into the fall.

  
Her leg came up inside her opponents guard and caught them square in the jaw.

  
She flipped and recovered, just in time to block another strike aimed at her head. But he had gotten in close this time, and that was a mistake.

  
Kailyn flicked her wrist to bring the iron dagger out of her sleeve, and dragged it across the fae guard’s throat.

  
As with most of them, he went down without a sound. Aside from the soft thud on the pavement.The helmet he was wearing obscured most of his face, but his eyes glared up at her as they glassed over.

  
It was then that she realized she should have had more people coming after her. Should have, but didn’t.

  
Looking up she saw why. Four dead guards lay around the stranger, with Rowan dispatching the last one.

  
Their glamor was down now though, or at least their first glamor. Most fae had more than one. But this was a sight to see. On first glance on the train they had looked about 5’10” with silvery blond hair cut reasonably short, and in a tidy shirt and tan pants. They were much shorter now, with long hair to about their mid back maybe, pale skin, and bright gray-gold eyes. That was the one thing that threw her, she could honestly see their eye color even from where she was now.

  
They were also in a set of articulated armor that looked metal but almost flowed like it was leather. Underneath that there seemed to be ringlets of what must have been chain mail. They were carry a double-edged sword in one hand and a shield on the other arm. A shield emblazoned with the emblem of the Winter Court.

  
She held her sword at the ready, but the figure didn’t move, didn’t raise their weapon, didn’t take a defensive stance. They just stood there, staring at nothing. It was hard to see in this light, but it was the fact that they weren’t moving that helped her see it. There were dark patches on their neck, side of their face, and breaks in their armor that were visible because those things should not have cast a shadow at the angle they were at. The patches of dark were just in the wrong place.

  
That and they were visibly breathing heavily.

  
They looked very bad off. Much worse than she could have ever guessed through the other glamor they had had on. Normally at least a few injuries showed through if they were bad. The stranger looked like they shouldn’t be on their feet right now.

  
They didn’t say anything, just watched her from where they stood over the last fae guard they had dispatched.

  
She took another step forward and they didn’t move.

  
“What are you doing out here?” She asked, although she was pretty sure she could hazard a guess.

  
“Please, leave me alone.” They breathed.

  
“Why are you running?”

  
That caused them to shift. It looked like they might bolt, but were testing their muscles to see if they would still work for that.

  
“Look, if you’re looking for a place to hide out I might be able to help you. But I need to know what you’re doing here first.”

  
“I’m running from them.” The figure motioned to the bodies on the ground.

  
“I gathered that much.” She frowned, “Why?”

  
“I need to get away from her.”

  
That was ominous. She was pretty sure who the “her” was, but that made things more complicated. Taking in someone running from the Courts was one thing. Taking in someone running specifically from one of the High Ladies was another.

  
“I am no longer a guard and no longer useful. It would be better to not…” They stopped.

  
Oh. That was why. Demoted gentry didn’t often leave courts. It wasn’t so often that one was hunted down. But it wasn’t unheard of.

  
“Alright. Come with me and we might be able to get you somewhere you can rest.”

  
“WHAT?” Rowan shot her a nasty look.

 

* * *

 

 

Rowan watched Kailyn talk with the injured stranger in something like stupefied confusion. Bartering with fae was a terrible idea. Though this one looked beaten to shit. And he wasn’t sure if some of those wounds were from this fight. He had served at a Court before, he could peg a runaway really easily. But this one was obviously wanted dead.  
It was odd to see the drastic difference in glamors. They had layered that other one on thick. Tall, dark haired, and blue eyed was very far from the creature he saw now. He wondered if Kailyn had seen the same person?

  
But when she offered shelter to the thing he had to speak up.

  
“WHAT?”

  
Kailyn gave him a very dead pan stare.

  
“No. We are not taking in a defector. That is too dangerous.”

  
“I’m not saying we do it just for kicks.” She said as she turned back to what Rowan now was sure was a fallen fae guard, “You will owe us a favor.”  
The figure shifted uncomfortably. And then Rowan understood. That was a nasty move, but if this thing could do what Rowan thought they could, a favor from them could be worth a lot.

  
“Only to you.” They said.

  
Rowan blinked.

  
“Ok.” Kailyn agreed.

  
“Hey! I helped too.” Rowan snapped.

  
“I could have taken them without you either way.” The fae guard said. But their voice sounded almost too tired for him to believe that.

  
“Rowan stop it.” Kailyn said. He backed down. If only because at least someone getting a gift out of this was good.

  
“So. Deal?” Kailyn asked.

  
The stranger looked down. And then looked back up with a determined gaze, “Any favor, except any of my names without me giving it freely.”

  
Damn, that would have been the first thing he would have asked for.

  
“Agreed.”

  
“Oh come on.” But Kailyn shot him another look.

  
“Let’s go.” She said and turned to head back to the train station.

  
“No not that way.”

  
Both of them looked over.

  
“I can’t…” The figure looked down. Rowan almost thought they were biting their lip. This was the most unusual fae guard they had ever met. Strong emotional reactions were not looked highly upon in that line of work.

  
“Why?” Rowan asked.

  
“I can’t make another glamor over this right now.”

  
Wow this thing must be tired. That also must have taken a lot to admit. But if they were wanted being recognizable in more high traffic areas was a bad idea. Still it was a long walk to their nearest place.

  
He smirked, “You sure you can walk then?”

  
“Yes.” The said, that determined look came back.

  
“Fine, then lets get out of here.” Kailyn said, and started off at a pretty good pace. Rowan was surprised the guard kept up.

  
“So, what do we call you?” Kailyn asked. That was oddly polite. It implied she wasn’t going to pry their name out of them just yet.

  
“Lir.”

  
Both of them blinked. It wasn’t common for fae to be named after one of their ancestors. Even if they were no longer present.

  
“Aren’t we cocky?”

  
Lir just blinked at him.

  
Rowan sighed, “Ok, so why’d you get thrown out?”

  
“I didn’t. I just ran.”

  
This just kept getting better and better. Running was not something looked on fondly by any court. But it was also extremely difficult to pull off. Normally you ended up dead within the first hour.

  
“When did you do that?” Kailyn asked.

  
“Three days ago.”

  
Both Rowan and Kailyn exchanged looks. They hadn’t paid a ton of attention to it, but they knew that that was when fae guards from the Winter Court had started to show up dead. Everyone they talked to obviously assumed it was the Courts getting into some secret squabble. If Lir was the reason though, they had a whole lot of trouble on their hands.

  
“Kailyn you should just leave it. We’re just gonna get in trouble if we help them.”

  
“Nope, I made a deal. You can leave if you want.”

  
Rowan scowled and shot her a look but Kailyn was ignoring him. Lir didn’t say a thing. It was odd, Rowan wasn’t terribly tall though Lir was definitely barely an inch taller. They had hair down to their mid-back that was some shade of brown and pale skin, which was pretty common among the Winter Court nobles. Lir also had a pretty easy to read face, which really threw him. He had never seen that kind of honesty on the face of any gentry. This was shaping up to be a really weird night.

  
Finally a familiar brown faced building loomed into view. They walked down a short flight of stairs behind the stone foundation. Kailyn pulled a key and whispered over the lock as the tumblers clicked into place. The silver and iron door swung open into a small entryway.

  
Rowan stalked in first and Lir followed, eying the door.

  
The entryway opened into a decent size common room. The place looked a lot bigger than it probably should have been, being in the basement. But they had expanded it for good reason. In one corner, reading a book and crushing a large cushioned chair, sat a firbolg. The small giant stood probably just under eight feet tall, and had greenish tinge skin and bark brown hair.  
  
Once he saw them the firbolg immediately shot to their feet.

  
“Rowan.” They said worriedly, his normally soft voice a little harsher.

  
“Easy, Kay brought it in.” Rowan said, obviously put out.

  
The firbolg, Noland, tilted his head to one side.

  
Though they had lived in this area for ages, the fae had displaced a lot of the firbolgs when they first took over. They were still allowed to live in the area now, but only grudgingly. As small giants firbolgs were very good at manual labor, and that was something the fae didn’t like to waste magic on. Though a lot of firbolgs had magical talent of their own.

  
Noland was a pretty good healer, even tempered character as well.

  
“Kay, what is going on.” He asked when she finally got done locking up.  
  
The fairy witch looked up, all sweetness and light now.

  
“I made a deal. They can stay the night and they owe me.”

  
The giant of a man looked surprised. Rowan could understand. If Kailyn had dropped this little tidbit on him after walking in the door with a former member of the Winter Court he would have been completely thrown too. He still wasn’t sure he believed this was happening even now.  
  
“Wh- Why?” Noland stuttered.

  
“Because we might need help soon.” She replied, and set about gathering a blanket and pillows. Kailyn liked being comfy, and as a result there was usually an excess of comfy things around all of the safe houses. Even a few reading nooks. Noland and Rowan just watched her pile blankets onto the couch.

  
A clatter knocked him out of his musings over whether he was actually awake right now.

  
Looking over he saw Lir on the ground leaning against the wall, shield dropped off to one side. He was surprised the thing hadn’t been part of the guard’s glamor. Most of them were forced to create their own weapons and armor from magic.

  
Rowan moved over to check on them, and was surprised by his own actions. But even more surprised at what he saw when he got close.

  
There was a black ring around their neck. Their armor was cracked and there were several punctures that went through to the skin under it. Though the skin underneath looked like it had gotten to the point of closing up in a lot of places, there were still bruises. Fae usually healed cuts quickly, as long as there was no iron in it. Bruising usually faded quickly as well, unless there was more internal damage left to heal. Lir had bruises so dark they were black.

  
Kailyn was also sitting next to him at this point.

  
“Hey, you ok?” She asked.  
  
Lir tried forcing themself up. But even with the wall didn’t manage.

  
“Take the glamor down please.” Kay asked.

  
Lir gave her a wary look, but the armor did fade, as did the broken maille under it. Down to a shirt and breeches Rowan bit back a gasp. Beat to shit was an understatement. Rowan didn’t doubt that they had been fighting the Winter Court's hunting dogs for the past three days at this point. Though some of the bruising definitely didn’t look like it was from a fight. There were lines of black around their wrists and parts of their arms, and the ring around their neck was a perfect one inch band.  
  
It was so odd to think someone else had managed to run like he had. To be on the other side of this fence was almost too much for him to deal with right now.

  
Kailyn stood up and ran to the kitchen shouting, “Noland take care of them for a sec.”

  
Noland stood stunned for a minute, but did move over and kneel down.

  
Rowan could do nothing but stare.

  
The firbolg looked as surprise as he felt, but did raise a hand to try to heal the stranger. Lir moved away for a second, and when moving proved to be too difficult, just leaned their head against the wall. Rowan leaned in a little, propping them up so Noland could look them over.

  
“Hey, what happened?” He finally asked.

  
Lir gave him a glassy eyed look. That… actually made him feel bad. He knew that look.

  
“No, really look at me. Really look. It doesn’t matter ok?” Gods why was he trying to be comforting to a former knight? How many times had this person caused that look to appear on someone else’s face?

  
Kailyn came back with a towel soaked in something that smelled oddly like a pine forest. She knelt next to Noland and wrapped the towel around Lir’s neck. That got a reaction.

Lir flinched backward along the wall and tore the thing off their neck. But the arm supporting them gave way and they collapsed to the floor.

  
“Please, no.” They said weakly.

  
Kailyn went from looking concerned to livid. From sweetly empathetic to possible rage monster. It was pretty clear that she was also having a hard time knowing what to do in this situation.  
  
She looked away, picked up the towel, and stood.

  
“Noland put them on the couch.”

  
Noland picked up the fae from the floor, and though Lir didn’t look comfortable with that they didn’t fight back.

  
Kailyn went back to the kitchen while Noland tried again to heal some of those bruises.

  
Rowan turned to follow her.  
  
“Hey.”  
  
She didn’t look at him.

  
“I’m sorry I argued earlier.” Though he knew that wasn’t what this was about. He knew she didn’t want a reminder of just how messed up things were. It was probably hard enough trying to look at Lir without remembering similar experiences. Gods, he knew it was.

Kailyn’s jaw visibly tightened.

  
“They are so frickin’ sick.”

  
Oh didn’t he know it. Fae didn’t really have a sense of what fucked up was most of the time. Until someone seriously fucked them up.

  
“Look it isn’t worth dwelling on.” Though he was pretty sure both of them weren’t going to sleep well tonight.

  
“If I ever get a shot at the sick fuck who did that…” Kailyn trailed off.

  
“I know. We have a few other things to do before that though.”

  
Kailyn looked down. He looked out the small window in the kitchen. Just in time to see a few leaves blow by. One of them stuck to the dirty glass of the window, pinned.

  
“Yeah,” She finally said, “I still need to fuck up Cairbre first.”


	2. A House of Runaways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After having taken in a runaway knight Kailyn and Rowan have to figure out what to DO with them. Except life is distracting and... so are other people.
> 
> Trigger warning for: sex, entirely queer sex

Noland was usually the first one up in the morning. Unless Kailyn had pulled an all-nighter. He went into the common room to check on their guest and didn’t see them. But he did hear mugs clinking in the kitchen.  
  
Walking down the hall he made at least a decent amount of noise before entering the room. He had a feeling their new companion would be pretty jumpy, and he was right. The fae was watching the entryway when he came he came in.  
  
“Morning.” Noland said quietly.  
  
“Morning.” Came a very soft reply. Though at least now Lir didn’t sound nearly as hoarse as they had yesterday.  
  
“How are you feeling?”  
  
It was a bad question, but one that was very useful if you had the right reason to ask it. By this time Lir knew at minimum Noland could heal, and hopefully that would be the context with which this question was taken.  
  
“Just tired.” Exhausted was probably more like it. Even with a healer your body still had to pick up at least a little slack. In their case a lot of slack.  
  
“So what are you rifling through the cupboards for?”  
  
Lir looked behind themself and then turned back to him, embarrassed. It was a strange thing to see on the face of someone who was probably very used to hiding that expression, among others.  
  
“Tea?”  
  
Noland smirked and went over to one of the still closed cabinets and opened it.  
  
“Take your pick. Kay and Anora keep it well stocked.”  
  
Lir hesitated. To be fair it was a lot of tea, but he had a feeling that wasn’t why. Then they quickly grabbed a tin of the cheapest stuff in there and brought it over to the table. A warm tea kettle sat on a mat on dark brown hardwood. Noland looked over to see a small fire burning in the hearth. It wasn’t like fae to take things without asking. Or use a house without permission. There were plenty of taboos against it in fact. But at this point the poor thing was just trying to get something quick to eat and drink before leaving. At least if that had been what they were planning on doing, being up far before dawn.  
  
“So what else did you raid the cupboards for?”  
  
Lir looked up from pouring a cup of tea and blinked.  
  
“Just… food.” They said meekly. Then they yelped and dropped the kettle. Thankfully the heavy iron pot landed with a thud right side up.  
  
It took him a second for that to click, but then he saw the small welt on Lir’s finger. It had slipped from the wooden handle and touched the iron. Though why the creature was anywhere around iron, much less using it for water, was beyond him. That would probably just make them sick.  
  
Noland took the mug and the kettle away and put one on the stove and the other on the counter.  
  
Lir looked over confused.  
  
“You trying to end up bed ridden?”  
  
“I-… no?”  
  
He blinked. There was no way the thing could lie, even if it had broken some rules of hospitality. Noland sighed and got the metal kettle and put that on the wood burning stove. If Lir could get that close to iron without showing discomfort that was something to mention to Kailyn.  
  
He had never had enough contact with the fae guards to see it, but he had at least heard that some of them were trained to be around iron like that. It meant that unless you killed them outright with it, iron wasn’t the best defense against them. The best defense was not becoming something the Courts considered a nuisance.  
  
It also meant he wasn’t going to make it his responsibility to deal with Lir. He didn’t need more of the fair folk in his life, Rowan was enough. Still that didn’t mean as a healer he wasn’t going to check in on them.  
  
“You should try to rest today. If you owe Kailyn a favor running off isn’t really a fair part of that bargain. Just take the day to recover.”  
  
Lir looked so confused by those few sentences that the firbolg wondered if he was speaking the right language. Then they looked down.  
  
“I know. I just don’t want to get anyone else hurt. I didn’t want to be responsible for anything else. I wouldn’t have taken the deal in the first place I was just…”  
  
Noland let the sentence hang in the air and stood up.  
  
“You were desperate and needed a way out.” He shrugged his broad shoulders, “I don’t think it’s the first time you’ve made that decision. Just try to make better choices from here on out.”

 

* * *

 

 

Rowan groaned. Leaning against the back of the chair he gripped the hair of the person between his legs.  
  
Ahearn hummed and it sent shivers down his spine.  
  
“Oh come… on I want you.”  
  
His lover paused and dragged his mouth off his cock in such a way that Rowan almost came. Almost. Ahearn was a bit more practiced at this, as much as Rowan would have hated to admit that.  
  
“And who says you get me tonight?”  
  
Rowan pouted but his partner just shoved him over onto the bed. He protested, but only a little as Ahearn pushed his chest into the pillows.  
  
“I’m going to make a mess of your sheets.” Rowan smirked.  
  
“We were going to do that anyway.” Ahearn replied cheekily, and then he felt Ahearn’s cock push inside of him.  
  
He yelped and bit his lip. Letting the rush of heat take him as Ahearn thrust deeper and deeper. Rowan squirmed, his partner holding his ass up off the bed and pulling him onto his cock. Then he reached a hand down and stroked Rowan’s dick.  
  
“Fucking shit!” Rowan cursed, “Don’t make me come before you’re done!”  
  
Ahearn pushed down deeper inside of him and Rowan whimpered.  
  
“Don’t tell me what to do.”  
  
He resumed thrusting harder. Rowan grit his teeth and tried not to moan. But more and more small cries escaped his lips, until he was begging. For what he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure what more he could take. Each thrust kept bring him right to the edge. But never over. Ahearn was good at that.  
  
All the right buttons were being pressed, except one.  
  
“How, hng, are you…?” he managed in between whines.  
  
He felt Ahearn slow, shift inside him.  
  
“Aah!”  
  
Fingernails dragged up the back of his thigh. But his partner was only slowly rocking back and forth now.  
  
“Please…”  
  
“Please what?”  
  
“I- NGH.” Another shift, and Ahearn’s fingers were working his shaft now.  
  
“Please what.”  
  
Suddenly he felt his lover push hard into him. Rowan screamed and shook. Ahearn was gripping his cock tightly now and pumping his hand back and forth along it.  
  
He couldn’t stop yelling, begging, pleading.  
  
“Please?”  
  
“Let me come!”  
  
Then there was a sharp knock at the door. But Ahearn seemed not to notice and kept going. Rowan could feel less and less though, until he woke up, laying on his side and watching an empty room.  
  
There was another sharp knock at the door.  
  
“Come in… oof.” Rowan sat up and then immediately regretted that statement.  
  
Noland opened the door and shook his head.  
  
“I need you downstairs.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
Noland gave him a very flat look.  
  
“To deal with the guest.”  
  
“Make Kailyn do it.”  
  
“They were up all night. You do it. Besides, you know what this is like. I have dealt with enough fae for one day. I’m not comforting one right now, I don’t have the energy.”  
  
Rowan groaned and fell back on the bed, “Fine.”  
  
“Deal with your morning wood first though.”  
  
Rowan blushed, and then glared and just gave Noland a thumbs up.  
  
The door clicked shut.

 

* * *

 

 

  
Rowan walked down the hallway to the kitchen, where Noland said he had left Lir. Sure enough the ex-guard was sitting at the table with a cup of tea, looking out the small kitchen window. Looking over the other fae he was surprised to see the lack of bruising from the other night. He healed fast, most of his kin did, but the small discoloration around the collar of Lir’s shirt was a pale comparison of what it had been before.  
  
“Hey.”  
  
Lir looked up. The former guard looked weary but had a calm expression on their face. Their eyes though… they were soft, almost kind looking. He had seen plenty of Court gentry, but this was the first time he had ever seen one that looked so… compassionate?  
  
“Hello.” Lir said in a small voice.  
  
Rowan looked away and started rummaging around for food and coffee. There were a few things he needed to know, but finally settled on what he was most curious about.  
  
“So how’d someone like you end up a guard?”  
  
“Not sure, I don’t remember it well. I just know I was given to her as a child.”  
  
He paused. It wasn’t customary for fae to give another fae child to someone else. Even to a High Lady, even to a Queen, who was definitely the “her” here. It hadn’t been for at least 150 years. Which meant they were older than he thought. It also meant Lir hadn’t ever grown up outside a court.  
  
“Who raised you then?”  
  
“My parents I guess… I just stayed at the Court during the day.”  
  
That was an odd arrangement for a gift, but ok. Being trained that young also explained the fight last night, and the reason Lir had survived as long as they had. Something was still off though. Gentry raised that young usually had no want to ever leave the Courts they were raised in.  
  
“I understand wanting to leave.” Rowan finally said. Pouring coffee into a mug and throwing a piece of meat from the ice box into a pan on the stove. “But why would you want to? You were a guard right? That comes with a lot more perks than I had.”  
  
“I just kept making mistakes. I couldn’t be what they wanted.”  
  
That statement rang a little too true to Rowan, and he altered the subject a little.  
  
“What got her pissed at you? Is that why you ran?”  
  
“She kept me around for fun I guess. It was later that I upset her enough that she almost killed me.” Lir was a little too calm in saying that, but did continue, “I let a child live.”  
  
Man, could he relate to that. Except it wasn’t a child, but still too young to be used for what the Summer Court wanted them used for.  
  
“So she punished you?”  
  
“She demoted me first. From her knight to a guard. Then I… I don’t know, it was just the way I acted that they didn’t like. I couldn’t… stay still. I couldn’t stay quiet when I didn’t like what was going on.”  
  
“Basically you fucked up royally in the qualifications to be a guard in the first place.”  
  
Lir just nodded. Man now he did feel bad. The guards he knew had pushed him and a lot of people around, in so many imaginative ways. But if Maev was the one doing the pushing, he didn’t even want to think about what had happened.  
  
He was sure he’d be angry at Lir if he knew exactly what they had done over the last 150 years. It was a small consolation to him that they didn’t seem to have had any choice in what they did. As fucked up as that was. Then again he wasn’t exactly all that innocent either.  
  
“How’d you make knight in the first place then?”  
  
“I killed her other knight. She had order him to hurt someone I knew. He just… couldn’t kill me fast enough and I got lucky.”  
  
Being able to take a beating was an understatement it seemed.  
  
“She took me as hers after. I didn’t agree with it, exactly, but I couldn’t… not? She convinced me to give her my name later.”  
  
Right, “convinced”. He knew exactly how that went. Still something didn’t add up.  
  
“If she has your name how did you even leave?”  
  
Lir looked up from their cup of tea. “She wasn’t there, and I… forgot the name. I left it there.”  
  
It took Rowan a minute to realize what that meant. You couldn’t change your true name. Not exactly. Fae and some other creatures knew what their true name was without having to do any digging for the knowledge. They just adopted other names before they could accidentally give their true name to someone else. If you told someone your name they could give you commands, not necessarily control you completely. However if you gave it, well that was giving them everything.  
  
But leaving a name? You’d have to tear a good portion of yourself out just to accomplish that. It was leaving the attachments of that name behind. If you did live, there wouldn’t be a lot you’d remember, a good portion that would just be muddled, and if you were lucky maybe you’d have a clear memory or two. That is, if you weren’t comatose after.  
  
You’d have to be pretty frickin’ desperate to even think about it.  
  
He didn’t know what to say to that. If Lir remembered any of what happened, which they seemed to, the information was probably badly distorted. Any of those 150 years spent under her control should have been gone completely, aside from maybe a few feelings or memories not associated with their true name.  
  
“I’m sorry.” He finally said.  
  
Lir tilted their head to one side, “You didn’t do anything.”  
  
“I’ve done a lot but that’s beside the point.” He smirked a little, “I’m sorry about what happened.”  
  
When Lir didn’t say anything he felt like he had to fill in the gap some how.  
  
“I had a friend who worked as a knight for Aine. At least when I was part of her Court.”  
  
“You were…” Lir said, surprised.  
  
Rowan felt a little better for being the one not having their mind blown for once. But oh was Kailyn going to love the info he just got out of their new friend.  
  
“Yeah. I wasn’t gentry. I was related, but I’m not full-blooded so I don’t… count.”  
  
Both of them just watched each other for a moment. Gods longer than that. It felt so odd, looking at one of Maev’s former knights, someone he had probably seen at least once. Not that he would have known, very few of the gentry did anything without a glamour on. Still, to think he might have been standing across from them on a summer or winter solstice while they had been quietly following whatever order they had been given that evening almost made him sick. Following orders you didn’t want to was hard enough, he knew that firsthand. But doing it for hundreds of years?  
  
“I’m sorry if I ever hurt you.”  
  
Rowan looked up from the stove, where he had been intently staring at his burning food. He quickly took the pan off the heat and turned around.  
  
“You what?”  
  
“I’m sorry if I ever hurt you… or someone you know.” Lir said while looking off to one side.  
  
There was a chance of that. But no one he knew had been offed by a knight of the Winter Court just yet. At least… no one he cared about.  
  
“I think we’re probably good.” He said.  
  
“So you left as well?”  
  
“Yeah,” Rowan shrugged, “This is sort of a house of runaways actually.” But Lir hadn’t met Anora, or really talked to Kailyn yet.  
  
“What happened?”  
  
The look on their face was honestly interested and open. It looked kind and worried and welcoming all at once. There was no magic in it and no intent behind forcing him to say anything. Still…  
  
“I worked as an aid to one of the nobles at court. The only reason they hired me in the first place was because I was a distant relative. When I proved that I was loyal enough they had me trained as a guard, and spy, for their house. I went with them to festivals, parties, feasts, anything that really required an escort that they could justify. I gathered information, made friends… sort of… and if they thought they could get away with it, sometimes they had me off one or two people.”  
  
Lir looked concerned but not quite upset, so Rowan just continued.  
  
“I eventually ended up acting as their emissary to the Winter Court. I even met Maev a few times.” And those few times had been utterly terrifying. He was pretty sure she knew what he was doing there in the end, just didn’t really care enough to bother with him. Petty squabbles between houses were beneath her. “I even fell in love with one of her knights.”  
  
Which was a mistake. But he was pretty sure he didn’t have to point that out to Lir.  
  
“Which knight?”

  
Now that wasn’t something he had expected to be asked, but it made sense. Lir may or may not remember his former lover, but it was very likely that they had known him.  
“Um… Cairbre. He… he was not exactly who I was trying to work over at the time. But… I got a little distracted I guess.”

  
Rowan looked up from putting his burnt food on a plate onto the table to see Lir looking worried and confused. Their brow was knit together as if they were trying to concentration on something.

  
“I think I knew him. But can’t… nevermind. I’m assuming that didn’t end well?”

  
“Nope.” Rowan sat down and took a long drink of his coffee, “But I didn’t end up dead, and I guess that’s a good thing.”

  
“I think it is,” Lir replied smiling. He didn’t know why that was comforting, or why he felt like he could talk about this again. But it felt good to have someone else around who knew what this was like, and what being under someone’s thumb like that really meant. He hadn’t lost his true name, but there was at least one other person who knew it.

  
He was still absentmindedly watching Lir across the table and letting his food get cold when he heard the sound of boots coming down the hall. He didn’t need to look over to know who that was, but Lir perked up to watch the entryway.

  
“Gods Rowan you burn something again?”

  
“Good morning to you too Kay.”

  
The witch was wearing a light purple cowl around her shoulders and had braided her hair down the left side of her head. Under that was a loose white shirt, a small belt corset and black skin-tight leather breeches. Her boots went all the way up to her knees and had heels on them. He had no idea how she could run in those things but Kay almost always wore heels. He thought he had heard her saying something about a tendon in her ankle once, but couldn’t quite recall the conversation. Either way she looked as cute and innocent as always when she wanted to go out on the town and cause mischief.

  
“Come on lets go get some actual food.” She said and turned to go.

  
Rowan downed the rest of his coffee and stood. Lir stood as well.

  
“Whoa it’s probably safer for you to stay here.” Rowan said.

  
“No they can come.” Kailyn said, and tossed them a small leather bag.

  
Rowan watched Lir pull out a metal necklace in the shape of a teardrop, and a small smooth obsidian stone.

  
“Keep those with you at all times and don’t use a glamor, it will cause the ward to go down temporarily.”

  
“How the fuck do you expect that to ward against the people hunting him?”

  
“It worked for getting me into Cairbre’s estate to save your ass.” She said with a wry smile, “It should make most people overlook them. It just means we will have to try to not draw attention to them as well.”

  
Rowan blinked and then sighed. Of course she’d have something else up her sleeve. Kailyn always did.

  
“So.” Kailyn turned her back to them and started down the hall, “Let’s go get something to eat!”

 

* * *

 

 

The street was just starting to get busy. There must be fewer construction projects due soon, because plenty more people would have been hurrying to their jobs at this point. Kailyn was thankful that that wasn’t the case. They didn’t really like crowds too much, even if crowds were useful. Still the cloak they had thrown around Lir should keep anyone who did manage to spot them from seeing enough of their face to recognize them. But the wards should work. If there was one thing witches were very good at it was charms and wards. Both could serve the same purpose honestly, but in practice they were constructed differently. The stone Lir carried was soaked in banishing herbs, and the stone itself should banish all thought of them from other’s minds. The necklace was an extra measure in case they lost the stone. Kailyn had a similar one, stuffed with herbs, a slip of paper with a sigil, and black string among other things. They had worked out the formulas with their grandmother ages ago.  
  
Putting things like that together, especially stronger tokens, exhausted them after. And also usually made them depressed. But they couldn’t do that now. They finally had a chance to maybe, maybe, get back at the man who had ruined a good portion of their life. They weren’t going to let that go.  
  
Leading Rowan and Lir through the streets the occasionally gave a quick glance around. They could usually sense stronger creatures as long as there weren’t too many other people around. So could Rowan actually. It was a necessary survival skill. But the cobble stone pathways were slowly filling up, and that made things a bit more difficult. Thankfully they made it to their destination pretty quickly.  
  
They watched Lir stare up at the large wooden building that said “Ev’s Tavern & Inn” on a sign over the door. The ex-guard looked like they were watching intently for something.  
  
“Hey, You coming?”  
  
Pulled out of their trance Lir blinked, apologized, and followed them inside.  
  
The common room actually had a very high ceiling, that went up through the second floor. Walkways ringed the upper area as glowing orange colored lantern chandeliers hung in between them.  
  
Kailyn headed straight for their favorite little nook, and when the current occupants saw her coming they vacated. Kay smiled sweetly at them.  
  
“Good job trying to keep a low profile.” Rowan scoffed.  
  
“What? They just know me here.” That was more true than he knew. Kailyn’s grandmother, in addition to being a fairy doctor (an odd moniker, but it was a pretty common name for certain witches), was a bouncer at this tavern. All of the staff knew them, they had grown up around this place, since their mother was rarely home, and their grandmother usually took care of them. Rowan only knew part of that story.  
  
The fae sighed and plopped himself into a chair. Kailyn shooed Lir into the darker corner of the booth and then sat on the outside.  
  
“You know we can’t keep going out to eat without pulling in some more jobs right?”  
  
“They can put it on my tab.” Kailyn smiled.  
  
Rowan shook his head, “We are going to end up broke because of your love of pancakes.”  
  
“They are the best recent invention!”  
  
Lir was watching this conversation intently. They seemed like they wanted to join in but didn’t know how. The curious child-like expression on their face made Kailyn almost believe that they hadn’t been standing over four dead bodies in armor last night.  
  
“What kind of foods do you like?” Kailyn asked Lir. Who seemed startled by being suddenly included in the banter.  
  
“Uh… just eggs and pork I guess? Maybe tomatoes… I am not sure.”  
  
It was at that point that a few things happened. Rowan started to say something, to get their attention, the waitress came over, and another figure strode quickly across the room. Kay focused first on the person moving quickly toward them. But when they saw who it was they jumped to their feet.  
  
“Anora!!!” Kay jumped past Rowan, which accidentally knocked the chair, and the person on it, over.  
  
Still they threw themself at their friend.  
  
“Well aren’t you as chipper as ever.” Anora said patting their head.  
  
Anora had light brown skin and was about 5’11”, definitely a head taller than both Kailyn and Rowan. Kailyn stood at about 5’6” and a little taller than that in their heels. Rowan was shorter than them, something they occasionally used to tease the fae with.  
  
“I’m glad you’re back!” Kailyn smiled.  
  
“I wasn’t technically out of the city exactly.”  
  
“But you were too far awaaaay.”  
  
Anora rolled her eyes.  “Hey Rowan.”  
  
“Hey,” Rowan replied. He had picked himself up off the floor at this point and was giving Kay an annoyed glare.  
  
Kailyn just smiled back in response.  
  
“So why’d you need to talk?”  
  
“I wanted to see you!”  
  
“Yeah and what else?”  
  
Kailyn pouted. Anora was a little too good at reading between the lines when she got messages from them. They still felt bad for calling them back with the intent of trying another hair brained scheme, but time was very important for this at this point.  
  
“I can tell you in a minute. Let’s get food.”  
  
“Oh no.” Anora looked over at the poor waitress Kay had almost knocked over and said, “Our usual, and whatever those two want, we’ll be back.”  
  
Rowan shot them a look as if they were again trying to get their attention, but Kailyn just followed Anora into one of the back hallways. The tavern also kept a few rooms open for rent, aside from having rooms for most of the staff. It was a family run place and had always been that way. With it’s close proximity to the river, it was very easy for the selkie clan that owned the place to get to and from work, and the rest of the land bound staff took up some of the rooms.  
  
Pulling them into one of the hallways off a side stair case Anora pushed them against the wall and kissed them. Kay made a small surprised noise, but didn’t protest further than that.  
  
“Gods why did you have to wear those pants?”  
  
“What?” Kailyn smiled, “They look good on me.”  
  
“Mhmm.” Anora replied and ran a hand down between her legs, “But they’re a bitch to get off.”  
  
Kailyn gave a small yelp as Anora tugged the lacing on the front of the leather pants open. She clapped a hand over Kay’s mouth though.  
  
“Shhh. They might like you here but I’m sure they won’t appreciate you making that much noise.”  
  
Kay wriggled their way out of Anora’s grasp. “And why would I be making noise?”  
  
Anora gave them a raised eyebrow over half-lidded eyes, “Oh come here brat.”  
  
Kay made a fake effort to sidle down the dead end hallway. Anora quickly grabbed their wrist and pinned it to the wall. Struggling with the pants to get them down low enough while kissing them. Anora’s kiss was rough, but sweet. Kailyn nibbled on her lip a little, and the tall auburn haired girl gave a contented sigh. Then resumed kissing them fiercely.  
  
Kaiyln squirmed and whined when Anora finally shoved their pants down far enough to get her fingers inside them. Anora pushed her fingers in as Kay gasped and moaned. She had nice thick fingers that felt good.  
  
“Miss me?” Kailyn smirked while chewing on their lip.  
  
“Not at all.” Anora said as she started moving her fingers back and forth.  
  
Kay shivered and started rubbing their clit against the crook in between Anora’s palm and forefinger.  
  
Anora bit their neck and Kailyn bit back a moan.  
  
“You’re coming too quick, out of practice?”  
  
“Nah uh.” Kay managed, but they were starting to feel that sensation well up inside them. Anora was very good with her fingers. They kept squirming on her hand, pushed up against the wall, and almost did come, then Anora suddenly pulled her fingers out of them.  
  
“Nnh. Hey!”  
  
“That’s what you get for calling me back here just to put me to work.” Anora crinkled her nose, “Come on, you can explain this to me in the bathroom. I have a feeling you aren’t going to want to be talking about it in that booth.”  
  
Kailyn pouted but tugged their pants up back over their hips. Anora was right, they didn’t want to explain this in front of Lir. But getting them all excited and then leaving them frustrated was just mean.

  
Oh well, they’d just have to get her back later.


	3. Sweet Dreams Are Made Of...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plotting murder, awkward conversations, and torture. Well... light torture. Light bad BDSM torture with fey. 
> 
> Who doesn't want bad BDSM for the holidays?
> 
> [nsfw section has a warning]

When Rowan saw Kay walking back to the table with Anora he immediately knew Kailyn had told her. Anora looked a little more serious than before, not outwardly pissed, but still a little more tense.  
  
 Rowan had been nibbling at the food he had gotten. His appetite still unsettled by not being able to talk to Kay about what Lir has said earlier. If they were going to use Lir to get to Cairbre they were going to need to be a bit more careful since there was a chance Cairbre would know who they were. Not to mention that there was no way to completely control the fae at this point. With no true name Lir was an unstable mess of magic, but also would have lost a good chunk of their abilities. Some of that forgotten with the name it was attached to. The only thing they would have to lean on was the favor, and that meant making sure it was an air tight deal. Rowan wasn’t sure Lir would try to wriggle out of it at this point, but there was still a chance.  
  
When Kailyn got close to the bar Rowan stood.  
  
“Stay here.” He said to Lir.  
  
“O… K?”  
  
He made his way quickly around the tables, and caught the witch by the arm.  
  
“We need to talk. Have Anora watch our new friend.”  
  
Kay looked confused but looked up, “Anora?”  
  
Anora sighed, “Ok fine but hurry it up. I don’t feel comfortable sticking around them for long.”  
  
Kailyn nodded and headed over to the bar with Rowan.  
  
“Two coffees?” He asked the bartender who was setting up for tonight. The selkie shot him an annoyed look, but when she saw he was with Kay just shrugged and moved over to the door to the kitchen.  
  
“Ok I’m going to make this quick so don’t interrupt.” Rowan said, just as Kay was about to open their mouth. The witch frowned and nodded.  
  
“There’s no way you could have gotten Lir’s true name out of them in the first place. They don’t have one anymore, and that makes this more dangerous. They aren’t going to remember things accurately and-.”  
  
“I know what that means.” Kailyn interrupted anyway, looking annoyed, “I wasn’t exactly planning on getting their name in the first place. But still…”  
  
“Yeah you know what this means about your favor.”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“Also Cairbre might know who they are.”  
  
Kailyn looked even more downtrodden at that, “No sneak attack?”  
  
“Probably not, unless you can pull another phantom witch stunt and get us into his estate.”  
  
Kailyn shook their head, “I mean, I probably could. But it would be a lot harder than last time. They will know how to detect my magic easier. I was hoping to hit Cairbre when he was outside the citadel.”  
  
Rowan nodded, “Yeah. But who knows when that will happen?”  
  
“The next festival.”  
  
Shit, of course that would make sense. But that meant a lot of possible witnesses, and even more guards.  
  
“You know that means there’s going to be a big crowd?”  
  
“Yeah, which is why I need to know how he’s getting to and from the citadel.”  
  
He shook his head, “There is no way we’d be able to know that before the fact I don’t think.”  
  
“Yeah…”  
  
“What were you hoping to have Lir do?”  
  
“Help us kill him.”  
  
Rowan looked away. It was true he’d killed people before. Mostly in self defense though. Even in the Summer Court he was closer to an informant than an assassin. Still, he wasn’t sure why this just didn’t sit quite right with him. This kind of planning going into killing someone made him a little  uncomfortable.  
  
Both of them paused their conversation as the bartender came back over with the coffees. She shot them an annoyed look and walked back down the other end of the bar.  
  
“You are going to have to explain the details of that. And you’re going to need to make them pretty explicit.”  
  
“We use Lir to isolate where Cairbre is. Whether it’s a festival or not. Most of the guards know each other’s magic. Especially the knights. Since they love vying for the highest titles.” Kailyn took a quick look around to make sure they had pretty good distance between them and everyone else. Then said, “If we are lucky we may be able to draw him out by causing a scene in his holdings outside the citadel. Baring that, we take him at night when he leaves a festival. Lir should be able to track him, even if they don’t quite remember him. Feelings don’t go away completely with a name. Then we use Lir to wear him down and we finish this.”  
  
Rowan bit his lip and looked away. Kay wasn’t looking at him, they were staring absently at the bottles across the bar. Just thinking about the knight ruined both of their composures. Still they needed to find a way to do this without drawing Maev’s annoyance. He was pretty sure the High Lady of the Winter Court never really bothered to be angry. She did punish people who took away her toys though. That was probably what any of them were to her. How much of a good pet Cairbre was he wasn’t sure. He knew that he wasn’t the highest ranked, and as a result might be easily replaced and his death ignored. Then again if she saw it as a slight…  
  
“We could get in a lot of trouble for this. Can’t we just hand him over to the king?”  
  
“I have no proof of what he did to my family, or me. Not anymore. There would be no grounds for a trial. Even if there was… the Court would buy out the nobles and the arbiter.”  
  
He sighed, that was probably true.  
  
“You so sure you want to go through with this?”  
  
Kay smiled sweetly, as if they hadn’t just been plotting murder. “Of course, besides…” She took a sip of her coffee, “We might even be able to pin this on Lir. Then we wouldn’t get in nearly as much trouble.”  
  
Rowan’s eyes went wide. That was the most fae-like thing he had ever heard a mortal say, and of course it was done with a nothing but a cheerful smile on their face.  
  
“You’re evil.” He said.  
  
Kay just smiled a little wider, “I know.”

 

* * *

 

 

Lir had a vague feeling of calm here. They weren’t sure why, but that was to be expected. They knew the risks when they did what they did. They hadn’t expected to remember anything honestly. But that had been better than… well it was supposed to be better than what they were stuck with right? They wouldn’t have done that without a reason.  
  
Anora plopped herself down in a chair on the other side of the table and made Lir jump. They had heard Kailyn yell her name earlier but hadn’t expected to be joined by just her.  
  
“Hello,” They said with a friendly smile.  
  
Anora just gave them a sidelong glance.  
  
“Um… I’m Lir.”  
  
“Anora.”  
  
“So… uh… How is your day?”  
  
“You’re not good at taking hints are you?”  
  
They stared back at her confused. Anora put her head in her hands. They must have done something, probably not wanting to talk? Oh wait… yeah that would make sense.  
  
“I guess… not?”  
  
Anora sighed and cracked her neck in such a way it just made Lir wince. Then she smirked and cracked her fingers all at once. When Lir seemed less worried about that Anora bent backward over the chair and cracked her back. They covered their ears and shut their eyes until they heard a muffled “Hey!” and a tap on the shoulder. Lir opened one eye. Kailyn was sitting in the booth next to them.  
  
“What’s wrong with you?”  
  
“They-”  
  
“She.”  
  
“She was cracking joints and it looked painful.”  
  
Kailyn snickered a little.  
  
“Anora please stop torturing them.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
Lir got the sense that that was actually a semi-honest question and not a teasing reply. Especially since Kailyn didn’t answer right away.  
  
“It’s mean.” Kay eventually said.  
  
Rowan was giving the witch an expectant look though. Kay didn’t say anything else, and instead just dug into the pile of pancakes that had been left for them by the waitress.  
  
“Ok, so where are we going today?” He finally asked.  
  
“I want to case some of the patrol routes around the Briars that Cairbre is responsible for.”  
  
Both Rowan and Anora exchanged confused glances.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Why chase patrols?” Rowan asked. “I mean sure we haven’t done a great job at scaring them off lately but…”  
  
“So we try again. Besides,” Kay swallowed another mouthful of pancake, “We need a test run.”  
  
Anora smirked, Rowan shook his head, and Lir looked confused. Did this have something to do with the favor the witch wanted? Were they just supposed to help scare away a few patrols?  
  
The Briars was a neighborhood at the end of one of the less well kept train lines. As the name would suggest it wasn’t well kept either. A knot of buildings that had been constructed with low walkways and twisting below ground passages it was originally one of the specifically human districts carved out of the old forest they were on the edge off. But as the place started to grow more tangled protrusions on its own, a good chunk of its original inhabitants abandoned it. It was one of a few slights the fae still brooded over that the humans had committed against their homeland. But the poorer inhabitants of the city moved in, and never moved out. The Briars had it’s own separate water supply, and while there weren’t a lot of fairy lights to keep it lit at night, parts of the place had luminescent mushrooms along the paths, and a lot of others had glowing moonflower. All in all it had been one of their favorite places in the city when they had visited.  
  
Visited… when? Lir took a breath and looked back up. “So when are we going?”  
  
“Tonight. They start running them around twilight, and it’s easier for me if I don’t have to waste too much magic on being able to see in the dark.”  
  
Right, Lir had almost forgotten that Kailyn was human. It seemed like she could see fine at night, that must have been why.  
  
“Besides,” Kay continued, “I need to walk off my breakfast.”  
  
“It will take you weeks to walk off that breakfast.” Anora teased.  
  
Kailyn shrugged, “Then I’ll work it out of my system tonight. Lets go walk the river!”  
  
Anora sighed and Rowan looked mildly amused.  
  
“Imma need more coffee.” Anora said and stood to go over to the bar.  
  
Rowan snickered, “You sure you don’t want to sit this one out?”  
  
Anora flipped him off, and just kept walking.

 

* * *

 

 

[nsfw; light cock and ball torture]

 

The different feeling of the fabric spread out over the couch was a little strange. Lir finally found a few things that felt the same and disappeared underneath them. The strange bumpy conglomeration of pillows that were pilled on the couch felt nice to nestle into. This wasn’t like any other place they had slept recently. And that felt like a good thing?  
  
Kay had brought them back to the safe-house after a short walk. Protections or no she had said that it would be better to keep them out of sight for most of the day. Which made sense. They were surprised that someone hadn’t found them already. But Kailyn must know what she was doing, which was a strange feeling. Despite being little (well not so little, she was still taller than them) and cute, there was something very dangerous about her. Lir could sense it every once in a while. They couldn’t quite figure out what it was though. A lot of people had a particular bent toward specific types of magic. Witches however, could usually study what they wanted. They were eclectic by nature, but there were traditions and families. It’s one of the reasons fae and other creatures kept them at arms length.  
  
But none of her friends seemed bothered by her. Witches were usually solitary spell workers and healers, with groups only gathering on festivals. But Kay fit in nicely with everyone she seemed to meet. Then again, you didn’t know someone was a witch till they told.  
  
Lir shifted and curled up underneath the pile of blankets. It was warm outside, but here on the basement level of the building it was nice and cool. The temperature worked perfectly for burying yourself in warm cloth.  
  
As they drifted off to sleep they thought for a moment that they heard someone call their name. The voice was familiar, but otherwise seemed pretty neutral. It was just someone trying to talk to them. Maybe Kay had come back?  
  
Then they were suddenly laying up near the top of a large bed, head nestled on a soft pillow.  
  
Even before they opened their eyes they knew this place was different. The feel of the fabric was all wrong. The temperature was different. The space was larger.  
  
Fae do dream, contrary to popular belief, but it is a strange half awake kind of dream. It is almost always lucid, and they can sometimes jump to other places, or into other’s dreams.  
  
The amount of harm that can be done depends on the magic the fae has at their disposal at the time.  
  
Before Lir could reorient where they were something grabbed the hair at the back of their head and dragged them to their knees on the mattress. They struggled immediately, grappling the arm (was it an arm?) that held them. But there was no purchase to be gained on the smooth skin under their finger nails. The elbow would not give. Even scratching did nothing. This was made harder by not being able to turn fully to see who was behind them. All they could see was the vague outline of a curving form, and the pale arm reaching out of the dark.  
  
“You think you’d ever be rid of me completely?” A cool soothing voice hummed.  
  
For some reason that sound calmed them a little. It also sent shivers down their spine. This felt very familiar. Soft sheets, long thin fingers, and a hint of danger. A small knife hidden in that smooth lilting sentence.  
  
The arm pressed their face into the mattress, not quite at an angle to suffocate them, but one that did make it hard to breath. The elbow pressed somewhere along their spine that sent a jolt of pain through them. They wanted to fight, but… didn’t? Why?  
  
“Come on, make this fun.”  
  
The next thing they felt were sharp nails digging into their balls.  
  
Lir gasped and resume struggling, but that only made it worse. They couldn’t seem to harm the arm holding their hair, and too much movement was a very bad idea. Fae could regrow body parts, mostly. As long as the damage wasn’t too severe. That did not mean it was easy.  
  
“Let me go!”  
  
“Hmmm. No.” The hand between their legs squeezed.  
  
Lir screamed but that wasn’t entirely out of pain. This felt good? But also very very wrong. This wasn’t just a dream. Someone else had gotten in.  
  
“W-what do you want?” They managed between shaky breaths.  
  
“For you to know I can find you. Not right away maybe, but I will. So enjoy your little vacation while you can.”  
  
“Who nnn,” Lir bit their lip as the hand shifted.  
  
“You know. Or at least you did. Come home soon-.”  
  
The last bit of that sentence was cut off, but the end of the dream lagged a little. There was something else the figure said that they just couldn’t make out. They knew they heard something further, but their brain didn’t quite understand what it was. Or at least, it didn’t want to.  
  
Then they woke up.  
  
They were still in pain. It was a dull ache compared to what it had been, but it was there. Lir curled up a little and winced. They were burning up, drenched in sweat, and shaking. It wasn’t just the pain though, they were missing too many pieces. There weren’t enough memories to put together why they had felt like that was a good dream. They knew, more or less, who that was. But why she had even bothered to try to find them made no sense. She had other knights she could torture.  
  
The fear churned in the back of their mind as they dragged themself to the shower. She had no reason. This must be for fun. It had to be. And that thought made everything a thousand times worse. Fae doing things for kicks was probably when they were the most dangerous. And she was dangerous enough as is.  
  
As they stepped underneath the warm water they shut their eyes and tried to let that feeling of overheating make them pay attention to where they were right now.  
  
She didn’t know where they were just yet, she had said that. It meant that if they could repay that favor maybe, just maybe, they could get out of the city.  
  
They just needed to make good on that promise first.

 

* * *

 

 

The lights around the Briars were varying shades of yellow, orange, blue, and green. All manner of things that grew in here could give off light at night. But it wasn’t at regular intervals, which meant a good portion of the street was still dark.  
  
This didn’t mean much to a lot of the inhabitants, to a few, mostly human, but not most. However it did mean Anora was squinting into the dark.  
  
“Couldn’t you have at least let me use one of those ring things?” She grumbled to Kay.  
  
“You won’t need it in a few.”  
  
“I thought we weren’t going in first?”  
  
Kailyn gave her an annoyed look and turned their attention back to the road.  
  
Rowan did as well. They had done enough reconnaissance with more local watchmen to know where they didn’t patrol. Because that was a good indication of where the fae did. Though here there were so many twisting paths that this was still a toss up.  
  
Thankfully a light slowly came down the path. The night patrols used lights as a point of order. If someone in one of the Courts wanted you dead, you wouldn’t see them coming. Here it was mostly just a power play. It indicated that these streets were theirs. As much as the inhabitants argued that point, it hadn’t come to much yet. Rowan hoped it would eventually. He had seen what fae making decisions for everyone else did. It still made him feel guilty.  
  
But he could live with that guilt, the people living here couldn’t live with those who were in charge.  
  
“You go first,” Kay said to him.  
  
“Why me?”  
  
“You’re sneaky. You do that and we’ll do the rest of it.”  
  
Rowan frowned.  
  
“Oh come on, you’ll be fine,” Kay smiled.  
  
“Yeah you said that last time.”  
  
“You lived!”  
  
Rowan sighed.  
  
And then disappeared.  
  
It wasn’t so much that fae went invisible, as much as it was making people believe you weren’t there. Whether it was mist (which could get kind of obvious) or just making someone think that the shape they were seeing was just a part of the building they were looking at didn’t matter. As long as it worked. And man could he make it work.  
  
Rowan was following the troop of fae along an upper path in minutes. Sliding down the side of the sloping organic building near them was no problem. He had snuck into Courts. Had passed within inches of gentry who had no idea he was there.  
  
This was different though, killing one person alone wasn’t to hard if they couldn’t see you. But once you started a fight in a group you only got one or two shots in before everyone knew you were there. Besides, the point of these little exercises was to scare them off, not kill all of them. Rowan knew guards in Aine’s Court. And though he hadn’t really known many in Maev’s, he knew enough of them to know that a lot of them had started out very similar to what he had. A lot weren’t born gentry. They just needed some way to gain power or prestige or not end up getting thrown out of their families for being useless.  
  
So as easy as this would be if they just killed all of them, that wasn’t the point. They wanted to make them afraid to come back. They wanted to make it known they weren’t welcome. They wanted them to alter their patrol routes because they were scared of pissing off the people here.  
  
And oh would he love to make them afraid.  
  
Rowan stalked silently around the building he had come down. He held is breath and waited for the last guard to pass before scooting around the building, and hamstrung the last person to pass him.  
  
He dodged back around another building, someone probably saw him, but the screaming was definitely going to be distracting.  
  
“There!” someone shouted, and Rowan jumped over the person’s head who had run toward him.  
  
It was at that point that the lights they were carrying went out. Kailyn must have gotten closer. Fae didn’t need light, but it was also distracting to have your eyes adjust to the relative darkness of the Briars. The rest of the city had so many lights, and Rowan had been accustomed to them when he had worked for Aine. These fucks probably were too, and in the millisecond before his sight returned, he heard a few more screams.  
  
The second his dark vision kicked in he was off. The person who had gone after him had their back toward him, and that made stabbing them pretty easy.  
  
Then he swung around.  
  
Fae patrols usually had about four people. In the Briars that went up to eight.  
  
Kay looked like they had gotten one as well as Anora. That left four, but the problem now became could they keep this up without the element of surprise?  
  
That and how long their buddies would be down since they weren’t planning on killing them.  
  
Rowan ran toward the next nearest target. His sword came down hard but the guard got his shield up in time. He leaned into the rebound and spun to bring the sword around to the right. His opponent parried and jabbed their blade out under his.  
  
Rowan jumped back. This should have been so much easier than last night. Then again the things after Lir last night he had had no problem killing. This was a little different.  
  
He smacked their blade away the next time they struck at him, but a yell distracted him.  
  
“Lir!” Kailyn was busy trying to get away from her own opponent while the former knight was pinned against the wall, a spear in their gut.  
  
“Shit.” Rowan cursed and ducked under his opponents next swing. Rolling away he yelled and swung hard at the guard holding that spear. The fae let go and jumped back.  
  
“Li-.” Rowan stopped midway through that sentence as the fae who had just been pinned to the wall went past him at a stumbling run.  
  
Rowan went to follow, but instead blocked his old opponent who had run at them both.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye Rowan saw the shield and sword Lir had been using disappear from the ground and reappear in their owner’s hands. Of course it was a glamor, knights always used their glamors. It was dangerous for you to use a weapon or shield made of something that was almost yourself. But that was what they were all expected to do.  
  
Dodging to one side Rowan danced clockwise around his attacker. The guard started to turn but caught sight of something and froze.  
  
He could feel the air slipping through his fingers as he brought a hand around to grip the hilt of his sword two handed. Bringing it around back of the guard he slammed the back of the person’s head with the flat of the blade. They went crashing into the ground.  
  
Rowan quickly glanced around to make sure no one else was going after him before looking up.  
  
Anora had pinned one of the guards under one large paw. Kay was standing over two unconscious bodies, and Lir had just brought their shield around into the face of the person nearest them, throwing that person back.  
  
Only one guard remained standing, and they were backing up down the road. Though the ones that were injured first had started healing enough that they were awake and trying to get back up.  
  
Kailyn flashed a smile and that was their cue. Rowan ran by and grabbed Lir by the arm, dragging them over to Anora’s side.  
  
As the guards were slowly picking themselves up, and looking at the four that had grouped together before them, Kailyn shouted;  
  
“Welcome to the Briars folks! We hope you don’t enjoy your stay.”  
  
Then the witch jumped onto Anora’s back. Rowan followed, and when Lir didn’t he reached down to help drag the confused fae on board.  
  
Then the wolf took off running.  
  
Lir glanced back over their shoulder before turning to look at Rowan and said, “She’s a werewolf?”  
  
Rowan shook his head, “You’re bleeding horribly and THAT’S what you’re worried about?”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
Rowan put his head in his hands... and almost fell off the wolf’s back. This was turning out the a fun couple of days.

 

 


	4. Bad feelings don't mean ill omens right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Rowan goes out for coffee, there are not-so-pretty pictures, and Kay is a flirt.

The small cafe within the Oakhaven district was only half full this time of day. It was late enough that a lot of people had started work, and the place was large enough to get a seat a little ways away from the main counter.  
  
Rowan got some coffee and took that seat, at a small table against the far wall. It gave you a good view of the place, as well as the street outside the large front window of the shop. The whole interior was carved and lacquered dark wood. With charms and magical carvings every few feet. It was expensive work, but for shops in this area they took protections seriously. Oakhaven was a more neutral part of town. Technically “owned” or patrolled by the King’s guard, it was actually a haven for a lot of the druids that worked with unaligned fae. Oakhaven was almost a grove of sorts, with the houses mimicking trunks of trees rather than slopping roofs and gutters. The tops almost always had thick lush gardens on top as well. The issue was the restorative work done in this area made it expensive to live here. And while several of the other races appreciated the relative safety of the haven, few stayed here long term.  
  
He came here often though, and the reason for that was soon walking toward him across the cafe.  
  
Ahearn was taller, almost as tall as Anora. With long dark blond hair and hazel-green eyes he cut the typical figure of what people thought when they thought “fae”. Rowan had always been a little jealous of that. Being a little shorter, and a little more… “average” sized without a glamor he could very easily be mistaken for a human. Which was useful when you were trying to blend in and not be noticed, outside of a court at least.  
  
Still the slim form that was common of most fae dropping itself into the seat across from him made him shiver a little. Ahearn was just a little to graceful.  
  
“You’ve been busy.” His companion said evenly.  
  
“Yeah things got a little crazy,” Rowan admitted, “You disappeared though, it’s not like we have had a lot of luck without you.”  
  
“I noticed.” Ahearn smirked a little, “So what are you up to now.”  
  
“Same old,” Rowan said, glancing sideways out a window, “Just harassing patrols. It’s not like we’ve been able to make a heck of a lot of progress. But at least they increased the number of guards so we’re doing something.”  
  
When he looked back Ahearn was studying him quietly. It was unnerving, but also a look that Rowan very much so liked to see on the other fae’s face. It meant Ahearn knew something was up but didn’t know the answer, and that gave Rowan an idea.  
  
“What?”  
  
“You know what. Spill, what is the witch doing now?”   
  
Rowan smiled a little at the figure across the table. “Like I’d just tell you.”  
  
“Rowan,” Ahearn said his name in an almost breathy tone that made him want to drag the other man into a back room for a quickie.  
  
“I don’t think so.” He managed, after shifting uncomfortably, “If you want anything else you owe me. Which means…”  
  
“We’re friends aren’t we?” The emphasis on “friends” was of course a little forceful. Friends was definitely an understatement. Still, even fae partners usually traded secrets for a price.  
  
“You know that’s not going to work.” Rowan held the smile steady, though that was getting harder to do with Ahearn leaning across the table.  
  
“Fine. What do you want?” Ahearn pouted a little. It was cute, and Rowan breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
“You clear one of my debts.” Rowan said.  
  
“For what? The update on you’re little family squabbles? No.”  
  
“Oh this isn’t a squabble. And I know you know something is up. Didn’t you swing by the guard house to listen in on them last night? Or have you stopped brokering that kind of intel.”  
  
Ahearn’s pout turned into a frown and Rowan’s smile broadened. This was probably one of the only times he’d ever gotten the upper hand in a negotiation with him. He was going to relish this moment forever.  
  
“If this isn’t good, I’m taking another debt from you, and I won’t erase the one you already owe.”  
  
“Fine. But I think you’re going to like it.”

 

* * *

 

 

The sunlight streamed through the small window in the kitchen of the safe house. Anora was babysitting Lir, again, while Kailyn showered and Rowan was out doing… something. This one was one of the larger houses Kailyn had negotiated to use. Negotiated with other people who lived in the neighborhood at least. Thankfully squatters couldn’t really get through Kailyn’s wards, but it made some of the other residents upset that the witch had three places set up to hide in. Still Kailyn was useful to have around, and everyone knew it. There were a few witches living in the Briars, most of them sticking to different neighborhoods. This meant that if you needed a charm, a hex, magical healing, you found the nearest witch. Each one had a specialty of course, and Kay’s just happened to be dealing with the fae.  
  
She wasn’t sure why Kailyn seemed immune to being charmed by the creatures, but so far no one had gotten the upper hand in a negotiation with her. And those who usually didn’t abide by her exact requests regretted it, most of the time. Certain gentry could do what they liked in most places, and none of the witches had managed to find a way to stop them yet. So far they only managed to protect this neighborhood from further incursions, aside from the small patrols at night. Which honestly was probably a miracle at this point. The Courts had gained so much power that the only checks and balances were their affect on each other, and the human monarchy.  
  
Anora honestly couldn’t care less about who ran what, as long as they did it right, and no one seemed to. Having come from another kingdom the change in politics was very apparent. On the one hand she was happy the fae spent a lot of energy fighting amongst themselves. Even if on the other they still had so much influence. If they were working together no other ruling body here or nearby probably stood much of a chance of staying in power.  
  
Glancing over in Lir’s direction Anora noticed for the first time since her thoughts began to wander that the fae was humming,and drawing. Standing up she walked over and looked down at the piece of paper.  
  
Swirling lines created wings made of leaves and strands of something coming off a creatures back. The thing was large, with fur and feathers, but with a humanoid face, partially covered. Arms covered in bark ended in long fingers and sharp claws. The thing was moving through trees? Sort of. It almost looked like part of the city behind that.  
  
“What is that?” She asked.  
  
“I think it was me,” Lir said, not looking up from the page. “At least I dreamed it was. Sometimes…”  
  
“Sometimes?”  
  
“When the Wild Hunt rides.”  
  
Anora caught her breath at that. Of course a knight would participate in the Wild Hunt. The Queen of their former court was the leader of it. But the thought chilled her.  
  
“Why would you do that?” She said, trying not to sound as angry as she was getting.  
  
“I can’t… I didn’t have a choice. She told us to. Dressed us up, if she wanted at least.”  
  
“She gave you costumes?”  
  
“No she made us change.” They said, putting the pencil down.  
  
Anora moved to sit in a chair across from them. She wanted to be mad, but her anger was fading. She wanted to hate them. But she also knew what changing into something else against your will felt like. She knew what losing control and hurting someone felt like. It didn’t feel fair for her to judge them and she hated that. She was a monster, the fae could be so much worse.  
  
“Like a glamor?” She asked, hoping that that was actually the answer.  
  
“No, she used her magic to make us what she wanted. There were only a few that rode as her knights. Only three. Anyone not chosen for that who participated dressed up, we had to hide our faces.”  
  
She was beginning to feel a little sick, especially with that last description. That was so far from dressing up.  
  
“Why didn’t you tell her no?”  
  
“No one did. Ever.”  
  
She saw their hands curl into fists on the table. Their jaw tighten. The Lir she knew as normally amicable, and even easy to smile vanished in an instant. This was the thing that had killed the guard a few nights ago. The thing that she knew to be actually capable of fighting. Not the fumbling child with a sword she had seen Rowan and Kay beat into the ground trying to train them up again. This was useful, but she didn’t want to use it. Getting someone angry for a fight was good sometimes, but she needed to find a way to control the thing first. Kay could to some extent, but it hadn’t stopped them from killing.  
  
The thing, she wanted to stop calling them that, but that was what they were, had been. What they still seemed to be sometimes.  
  
“Why did you draw this?” She asked, trying to change the subject.  
  
Lir stopped glaring at the table and blinked, the hardness fading from their eyes.  
  
“I need to remember something. There was something I lost that I didn’t mean to, when I left. I knew I wouldn’t remember much, but something… something is there and I need to find it.”  
  
That was a dangerous venture, she knew that first hand.  
  
“You might want to just leave it.” She said.  
  
Lir looked up, moving their lips slightly as if they were trying to find the words for something.  
  
“It might help. I owe Kay. I owe Rowan. I need to try to fulfill her request.”  
  
Anora sighed and put her chin on her hand, looking out the window. “It still might not be worth it. I know what trying to get something back is like, that you’ve forgotten. Thing is, you might drag other things back with it.”  
  
“I know. That’s why I dreamed this last night.” They motion to the picture.  
  
She turned back to face them, “You dreamed of the hunt?”  
  
“Yes, one of them.” They said, “I… I watched me. I just couldn’t… do anything.”  
  
Anora bit her lip.  
  
“Not remembering isn’t an excuse but… I need to try to do something. Something to fix what I did. Maybe this is that something. Maybe if I repay this debt I can…”  
  
“It’s not going to fix anything.” She said.  
  
Lir stopped and gave her a confused look.  
  
“Let me tell you this now, it won’t change anything. Whatever you did, whatever she made you do, is done. You can’t fix it now. The only thing that’s left is damage control,” Anora looked away, “That’s it. And I really need you to believe me on this. I know I didn’t do what you did, but it’s not like you’re the only person who ever hurt someone.”  
  
They looked like they were trying to pick out words again, but stopped. Good.  
  
“Look, you don’t remember, well almost anything if what I know is right, but trust me when I say you can’t fix it. You killed people, you don’t know it but you did and unless you can bring them back there isn’t any fixing to be done.”  
  
Both of them watched each other for a bit. Lir looked away eventually, chewing the inside of their lip. It was almost like talking to a child. They looked younger than her, acted younger, and were still so much older. Maybe they got the good end of the deal as far as almost ending their life had gone. But somehow she doubted that. They had plenty of things that could very easily come back to bite them in the ass. Maybe literally.  
  
“I… I know.” Lir said quietly, “I can still hope that… maybe something will help.”  
  
She sighed, “Why? You’ve murdered hundreds maybe thousands with how old you are. I’m sorry but what do you think you can do? Gods know what else you did. Maybe if you are lucky very few people are still alive who will remember to hate you for it.”  
  
The former knight looked up at her. They did look guilty, and sad, and nothing like the race they were supposed to belong to. Was this really not a glamor? For all she knew she was sitting in front of a maybe 20 something kid with light brown hair, blue-green eyes, and pale skin with a permanent blush on their face. The only thing that seemed to give away that they were fae, aside from maybe them having a similar slender body type, were the ears barely peeking out from their hair.  
  
“Maybe I can make someone smile?”  
  
Anora tilted her head in confusion, “What?”  
  
A small smile tugged at their own lips, but they didn’t seem to be able to let it cross their face.  
  
“Maybe I can make someone happy. Maybe I can do something good, that would be nice. Maybe I can protect someone, help them, help Kay. If I can do something good, it won’t fix it, but it can start to make this place a little better, someone’s day a little brighter. If I can help stop this person that… that Kay wants to stop maybe it’ll change this place for the better.”  
  
She wanted to say something, but couldn’t. What could she say anyway? This was crazy but… maybe it was a good way of looking at it?  
  
“I’ve seen a different part of the city. I’ve seen people here laugh, I’ve seen them cry, and I’ve seen the way they look at me and Rowan. I know they have every reason to dislike us. To hate me. But I’ve finally been able to smile in what feels like forever, and that was because of people who live here. I can’t fix what I did, that was a poor choice of words. But running away was worth it. I just want to…” Lir paused and ran a hand over the piece of paper on the table.  
  
“I want to make my being here worth it to someone else before I…”  
  
Before I die. She knew that feeling too. Wanting to make something good before the next fight she got in was her last. Because she wanted to make up for things she had done, and knew she couldn’t. But they were right… maybe at least she could make her still being alive worth it to someone else.  
  
Anyway, if she was going to stick around for now, might as well hope she was doing something right.

 

* * *

 

 

Kailyn was frustrated and spent most of their time in the shower brooding. Staring at the blank white stone wall across from them as their thoughts raced. Training Lir had been slow, and Rowan had been right. Since Lir had gotten away obviously Kay assumed they were still capable. But that must be a defensive mechanism at this point because in a straightforward sword fight they failed miserably.  
  
Leaning their head against the cold stone Kailyn tried to focus. Lir could fight, that was something. But nothing like what they must have been able to do previously. Kay had seen Cairbre fight, they knew what a knight could do, that wasn’t Lir.  
  
They tried to tell themself it was ok. They just needed to wait a little longer. Plan a little more. They had one more person to help now, and if all else failed maybe Lir would lose it in the fight with Cairbre and they would win.  
  
But Kay didn’t want that. They didn’t want to just have someone go into a fight knowing they would be hopelessly outmatched. They didn’t want Lir going in assuming they would die. The former knight might owe them a debt but that didn’t mean Kay wanted them dead.  
  
Turning off the metal pipe that slowly trickled water onto their body Kailyn stepped out of the tub and onto the towel they had put down. They really wanted a rug in here but mold was an issue in the basement floor of a building, and towels were easier to wash.  
  
After drying off and putting up their hair Kay glanced in the mirror. People had always said they looked like their grandmother, aside from their hair. That they had gotten from their father’s side. Sometimes they wished they just looked exactly like her, red hair and freckles. Kay had the freckles, but definitely tanned more than any of her mother’s side of the family. Guess that was something.  
  
Kailyn hitched the silver necklace back around their neck. It was the first thing on and the last thing off, always. It was a charm, a twining sliver of silver, that their grandmother had given them. Of course it wasn’t just silver, there was iron in it too.  
  
Many witches carried charms, items to ward against harm and ill luck. Kay did, but this one was different. It held a weapon, and couldn’t be picked up on by magic in most circumstances.  
  
As they were slipping on other clothes, pulling a tunic over their head, someone knocked.  
  
“Hello?”  
  
“It’s me.” Anora said from the other side of the door.  
  
Kailyn pulled the long shirt on the rest of the way and then said, “Come in.”  
  
The tall woman walked in, shutting the door behind her.  
  
“You use all the hot water?”  
  
“I’m not Rowan.”  
  
Anora smirked, “Good thing too, he’s going to need a shower.”  
  
“Oh?”  
  
Two quite strides and Anora was right in front of them, caressing their cheek.  
  
“You might need another too.”  
  
Kay smiled and then drew back, “Nope, I need to go out.”  
  
A pout crossed their partner’s face, “Why?”  
  
“I have a job. There’s a spirit lurking around Moss Hill Road. I got a few people offering me things in exchange for convincing it to leave.”  
  
“Convincing?”  
  
“Why yes,” Kailyn said and stepped right up to press their body against Anora, “I can be very persuasive.”  
  
Then they dragged their hand quickly over her crouch before heading out the door.  
  
“See you when I get back!”  
  
The surprised and rosy cheeked look they got before the door shut was almost worth turning her down. Almost.  
  
Kailyn had missed Anora, and there never seemed to be enough time to make up for that.  
  
Hopefully there would be, and soon. Because she had been getting bad feelings lately.  
  
And ill omens ate time.


	5. Witches and Werewolves and Druids oh my!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As per usual Kay is getting everyone in trouble again. At least Rowan will blame her, even if it was his idea.
> 
> Even if you're plotting murder you still need to have a place to crash. So the group turn to what they originally bonded over, protecting their home. Kay is used to organizing raids on patrols and helping the residents of the Briars deal with any dangerous solitary fae. And thankfully she usually gets paid for at least one of those things. Because times are hard and people make bad deals. But paying a witch to deal with your problems is usually much nicer than dealing with them yourself. At least unlike fae witches will usually just take regular money.
> 
> Trigger warning for violence and a little gore in the middle scene

The early morning air was split by a loud clang. They shoved their shield forwards, forcing Kailyn’s blade away. She brought it back around effortlessly.  
  
Lir stepped back but not fast enough. They could still get their shield up though. Another harsh metallic ringing filled their ears.  
  
Kailyn tried to turn with the resistance and whirled around them, but they managed to step back in time so she didn’t end up completely at their back. It did mean that she had an opening though.  
  
There was a sharp stinging in their side.  
  
Lir doubled back and centered again. When they had first started training with all of them, Rowan, Anora, and Kay, seemed pretty keen on giving them a beating. That was kind of understandable considering who, what, they had been.  
  
Now though, Kay’s practiced swings came down with less force.  
  
Kailyn weaved around them, it was still not that easy to grasp how timing worked. Yes they knew what to do, but not how to get there.  
  
Lir swung at her, but the lack of force behind the swing meant she swatted their sword away like a fly. They shuffled back again to get away from her.  
  
She actually seemed intent on getting them back into fighting shape, though they weren’t sure how well that was working right now.  
  
Another clang and Lir stumbled to one side. She was getting impatient, they weren’t fighting back enough.  
  
Lir tried circling like her, but their movements were far too clumsy and just provoked another strike. There honestly didn’t seem to be many chances they were actually going to hit her. Trying to do so left them open, while not doing so at all just meant a beating.  
  
Another lunge, another miss, another cut on their side.  
  
Lir had barely turned when Kailyn brought the butt of the hilt around into their face.  
  
They collapsed to the ground, gasping and holding their cheek.  
  
Kailyn gave a small sigh and knelt down next to them.  
  
“Hey, sorry, you ok?”  
  
“Yeah,” They managed before a sharp intake of breath. Talking was not a good idea.  
  
Kailyn stayed by them, despite their pained reassurances that this was nothing. She and the other’s seemed to have learned by now that while decently hard to take down, they did not like getting hit in the face.  
  
They didn’t stay sitting longer than a few seconds however. It had been getting harder to ignore the pain, they remembered a time when that wasn’t true. But for now it was something they were going to have to deal with. Maev’s guards weren’t going to take pity if they found them. This was probably one of the reasons they had been so desperate to get out of the city when they first escaped. Everything from that first night seemed so so far away at this point.  
  
“Did you want to go again?” Lir asked quietly.  
  
A short distance away someone let out a snort.  
  
Kailyn rolled her eyes without looking over. When they turned they saw Rowan and Anora walking up from between one of the small passageways that sneaked out between two “houses”. Really everything in the Briars that counted as a house was just places where there was room to move underneath the large roots and vines that twined together throughout the district.  
  
“Oh knock it off.” Kay frowned.  
  
“What? It was cute.” Anora replied.  
  
Rowan was shaking his head but also looked like he was smiling a little.  
  
“Uh, hi?” Lir said.  
  
“Hey,” Rowan replied, “You two done having fun?”  
  
“We could take a break, why?” Kailyn asked, suspicious.  
  
“Noland got in touch, said that it seemed like one of the workers at the bar in this section of the neighborhood got a bad deal.” Anora explained.  
  
“He wanted us to figure out what was going on, and, you know,” Rowan smirked, “Deal with it?”  
  
Kailyn snorted, “You can’t pun, just give it up.”  
  
“I thought that one was good!”  
  
“Eh it was fine.” Anora shrugged, “Anyway, we going?”  
  
Kay sighed, “Yeah I guess that’s mostly my job now.”  
  
“You’re own fault,” replied Rowan, “You were the one who started picking on fae.”  
  
“Whatever, people still know where to find me if they need to.”  
  
Lir watched quietly from next to the witch. It was true they hadn’t see her do much other work. Some herbal remedies and a charm maybe, but actual out of the house work wasn’t something Kay did. It definitely had to do with her chasing down guard patrols. Of course no one liked that, and jobs that involved showing your face would be dangerous, to both her employer and her. Thankfully witches usually worked by word of mouth and had a very set client base that usually was pretty loyal.  
  
They wondered what Anora and Rowan did to bring in money. Then again there wasn’t exactly a solid tax system in the Briars. It was mostly exchange, and some exchange of services. Fae didn’t always take payement in silver, sometimes that was the cheapest way to deal with them though.  
  
“Hey.”  
  
Lir blinked and looked over, Kay was looking at them with big hazel eyes. She wasn’t tall, but they were still shorter than her. She also tended to wear heels all the time, which helped. She was leaning over toward them a little, closer than they usually liked people getting. They could make an exception at this point though, Kay was awfully pretty today. Dirt stained and dressed in browns she still radiated an aura of lavender frilly skirts.  
  
“You ok?”  
  
They blinked again, “Yeah, fine.”  
  
“Come on.” She said, taking their hand, “We have to go try to look imposing for an evening.”  
  
Anora laughed, “You two? Imposing? Now that’s a joke.”  
  
Kay pouted back at her and kept walking.  
  
“You’re still cute!” Anora called after her.  
  
“Yeah yeah,” Kay muttered, but it was obvious she wasn’t mad. In fact her cheeks were a little red.  
  
Lir smiled. Anora was right, she was still cute.

 

* * *

 

 

Anora was sitting, hiding behind a mug of ale. Kailyn was off talking with the poor sod who made a deal with unaffiliated fae. Rowan was flirting with some stranger at the bar. And once again, she was stuck baby sitting Lir.  
  
It wasn’t as bad this time though. They seemed to understand at this point that if Anora didn’t talk, she didn’t want to, and had been letting her initiate conversations. Which was nice. It gave Anora time to survey the room and keep an eye on things.  
  
It was strange, Lir was like a well-behaved child at this point. They looked around the room in wonder at some of the things that they must have seen before, but didn’t remember. There was no pattern to manners or items that they did remember though. Which was probably just indicative of what had been too closely tied to their old name. It was sometimes hard to watch, Lir knew people here were a little wary of fae, and it made some conversations end badly. But they did keep trying to talk and be pleasant, which was something. At least they didn’t share Rowan’s short fuse.  
  
Something near the door made her perk up. Despite not having the same sense she did when she changed, Anora still was pretty good at watching her surroundings.  
  
Good thing too, because three nasty looking creatures walked in. Fae looked beautiful and terrifying at the same time very easily. These three definitely leaned into the terrifying part. Especially the big one. Anora thought it was just an insanely good looking troll at one point, but no that aura was pretty unmistakable. They weren’t trying to hide what they were. Which was odd. The deal was supposed to be only between two people. This could get out of hand quick.  
  
She stood and when Lir went to follow her she put out a hand.  
  
“Stay here. Don’t get involved if you can help it.”  
  
Lir nodded and Anora quickly made her way over to Kay. She saw Rowan out of the corner of her eye slowly pulling away from his conversation and fading into the background of the crowd. Good. At least they might have element of surprise.  
  
Kay had definitely noticed the trio walking toward her and her companion. Either that or she had switched the topic from “How do we help you not get screwed” to “where’d you get that cute skirt?”.  
  
“Hey hun…” Anora said when she got close.  
  
Kailyn smiled her usual sweet smile, “Hi!”  
  
The person they had been talking to, a rather tall goblin woman who was now looking very worried, took a few steps back. It was then that Anora saw the fae stop in front of them out of the corner of her eye. Both she and Kay turned to face them.  
  
“Sorry can I cut in I need to talk to-”  
  
“Me.” Kailyn smiled at the first of them that talked.  
  
The look of sheer confusion on the creatures face made Anora smirk. Of course they’d think of themselves as top dogs around here, fae usually were top of the pecking order. Seeing them recover into bemused annoyance just made it better.  
  
“No. I have business with-”  
  
“With me. She can’t talk to you right now, she’s working. Besides I am going to be dealing with her debt anyway.”  
  
The fae just frowned, “A debt can’t be transfered, that’s not how that works.”  
  
“Actually I owed her a little something anyway so it all works out.”  
  
Fucking shit Kay you couldn’t have a better angle on this? At least they won’t know if you’re lying or not.  
  
“Really.”  
  
“Yes really.” The witch replied cheerfully.  
  
All three of the fae exchanged looks. Then when on of them nodded the one who had spoken turned back to Kay.  
  
“Alright,” They said in a sickly sweet voice, “You’re coming with us then.”  
  
“No, you’re telling me what you want. I don’t have to do anything till you do. Unless me coming with you is the favor you want?”  
  
Normally dealing with fae was utterly horrifying. Kay seemed to know all the tricks though, and made this look too easy. As the look of annoyance crept back onto the creatures face, Kailyn just smiled. Keeping the beings in a place where there were plenty of unfriendly eyes was wise.  
  
“Why don’t we sit down and talk?” Kailyn asked, motioning to a table.  
  
The three creatures agreed in their confusion. A human negotiating like this was unheard of to most fae, and these three must be new here, because Kay had kicked out several of their kind before.  
  
“So,” Kailyn motioned to a waitress for drinks, “What kind of deal we talking?”  
  
“There is no deal.” The first one who spoke kept going. The other two remained silent. Anora kept an eye on them, “There is a debt she owes us. And if you are taking it then you owe us.”  
  
“Ok, what do I owe?”  
  
The fae eyed the witch carefully. They glanced at Anora as well, but that seemed just to be a cursory check that the werewolf was still there. Don’t want any more surprises today do we?  
  
“Your strongest magical charm witch.”  
  
Kailyn looked worried, and she couldn’t tell whether this was still an act or not. This was what Anora hated about helping Kay, she just didn’t know what to do sometimes.   
  
Kailyn looked down, “Or…”  
  
“I could let you keep your right hand when you leave.”  
  
Yup. Definitely an act, and a good thing she hadn’t done anything too.  
  
All three fae looked at Kailyn like she was amusing, but getting annoying.  
  
“Alright stop this. Give me the-.”  
  
That’s when the hand over Kay’s chest drew a sword. Of course, her grandmothers charm. A lot of fae pawned or peddled magical items of one sort or another. And this poor fucker hadn’t specified what they meant when they said “give”.  
  
So Kailyn brought the sword down on the creature’s right hand. It didn’t come completely off, but the ear splitting scream that came with it spurred the talker’s two companions into action.  
  
Even though she had been ready for something like this, the punch in the face still caught her off-guard, it wasn’t like fae to fist fight. The other one drew a sword.  
  
Rowan suddenly appeared in front of that one though, so Anora ignored it for now and faced the over bloated piece of meat that was behind the staggering creature Kay was after.  
  
Anora lunged, closing the rest of the distance between them, and both of them went crashing to the ground. It was then that she realized this was a bad idea. Fae were preternaturally strong at times, but this one must have been more than their glamor gave away, because they threw her off them like trained farmhand tossing a sack of grain.  
  
Anora knocked over a table before landing, and scrambled to her feet. The creature was on top of her in seconds, and she barely had time to bring up her arms before another set of swings pushed her backwards.  
  
Bark-like fists scrapped her skin as she kept her hands up around her head. And a shot in the gut made her grunt and curl.  
  
Ducking and weaving in between two tables she grabbed a chair and brought it down on the next extended arm. The wood splintered, but at least it knocked the punch away. She brought around a kick that caught the fae in the right arm and the thing staggered a little. But only a little.  
  
She got her leg back just in time to avoid another jab at her side.  
  
Backing up further she realized she wasn’t that far away from the wall.  
  
Duck.  
  
A fist went crashing through the wood planks near where her head had been. This meant she could land two good hits to her opponents gut, but that wasn’t enough. It was like trying to down an oak. Then a hand grabbed her hair and slammed her face into a table.  
  
Ok that’s it you fuck.  
  
She growled and dug her now lengthened claws into the creature’s thigh.  
  
THAT got a reaction. The fae let go of her hair and she took the opportunity to straighten and rake her claws across their chest.  
  
Before they could recover she lunged and latched her jaws around the fae’s throat. Even if it wanted to scream at this point it couldn’t.  
  
Hands grabbed at her sides and the lengthened fur on the back of her neck, but she just kept steadily closing her jaws. Biting into wood wasn’t tasty, but her kin at been known to snap tree trunks.  
  
It wasn’t until a sharp pain in her side that she let go and scampered to one side.  
  
The spear fell out of her side as she moved and she growled. There were three more fae at the door. This time they were guardsmen. The bar was basically empty at this point, and Kay was moving to her side.  
  
It looked like there were more guards out the window though.  
  
Rowan’s opponent tried to disengage with him only to get a gaping gash along their back. Another spear was aimed at Rowan's head but he was quick enough to avoid it.  
  
“Kay…” She growled.  
  
“One sec.”  
  
More guards in the doorway and more readied spears.  
  
“Stand DOWN.” One of them yelled.  
  
“Nope!” Rowan yelled and threw something from his pocket.  
  
A small blast went off in the doorway.  
  
“Let’s go!” Kay yelled and ran for the back of the room. Or course she would know where the back door was.  
  
It was only at that point that Lir peaked out from behind the bar. Well at least they had listened.  
  
“Come on!” Rowan said and grabbed their arm to drag them out the back.  
  
Kailyn lead them through the kitchen and out the back…  
  
Right into another group of four guards.  
  
Well… shit.  
  
“Damn it.” Rowan said under his breath. Kay just brought her sword up in front of her.  
  
Anora straightened. Standing on two legs made her a slightly larger target, but it was better than the other two getting hit.  
  
“Put down your weapons.” One of the guards said calmly.  
  
Crap… there was a captain. Guard captains were bad news here, but it meant they had gotten someone’s attention. The courts usually didn’t patrol this area this early in the evening. Let alone with officers in their groups.  
  
“Nah I’m good.” Rowan replied.  
  
“Okay!” Kailyn said as she dropped, and then caught her blade in the opposite hand,tossing it at the guard’s face.  
  
The three guardsmen raised spears and the captain raised an arm.  
  
Fucking shit Kay you better have a counter spell.  
  
The sword did knock aside one of the spears, but Anora stepped in front of her partner.  
  
And Lir stepped in front of her.  
  
Raising an arm across their chest a shield appeared on it, and a larger  silvery image of that shield appeared in front of all of them.  
  
There was a loud crack.  
  
The larger shimmering image flickered and disappeared, and the patrol in front of them all stumbled and skid backward. A few of them bleeding from various cuts.  
  
The magic had ricocheted off of… something?  
  
Lir themself shimmered slightly before lowering their arm. This looked familiar, but she wasn’t sure why.  
  
Kailyn didn’t wait to ask, she just charged, her sword appearing back in her hand.  
  
“STOP.” A voice commanded.  
  
And Kay did stop, right in front of the enemy captain.  
  
Anora knew that voice.  
  
The figure holding the lantern had probably been there for a while. But no one had noticed. Of course they hadn’t, the druid’s grey brown clothes blended perfectly with the background.  
  
“They’re coming with me.”  
  
The fae captain glowered, but picked their words carefully. Which was fair, Kay still had a sword at their throat.  
  
“This is none of your business.”  
  
“To hell it is. I’m city watch, and last I checked you’re a little far out of your jurisdiction. The Briars are not a Court territory.”  
  
“Officially no-.”  
  
“So you can leave.” The figure said, making a shoeing motion with their hand.  
  
Anora saw Kay smile down at the captain, and the fae glared daggers at her for it. But they did motion for the guards to stand down. The other few guards that had come around the side of the building to help their friends also stood down.  
  
Once that happened Kay backed up a little, still not far enough that the captain could stand without crawling away from her first though. Come on Kailyn we don’t need more enemies.  
  
“BYyeeeee.” The witch smiled and waved as the patrol gathered itself together, and left.  
  
Anora slowly shifted back, as her vision became less clear in the dark she did notice one thing, Lir was staring at the druid. Staring like they knew them.

 

* * *

 

 

“CIARA!” Kailyn ran over and hugged the druid once the group had left.  
  
Rowan shook the blood off his sword as he moved to join the rest of them. He and Anora were decently beat up. Kay seemed pretty well off, then again she needed to avoid getting hit. Lir had stayed out of the fight for some reason, which seemed uncharacteristic of them, but he’d worry about that later.  
  
The dark skinned dark haired druid gave them all a disapproving look, even as Kailyn hugged her.  
  
“I heard you were causing trouble.”  
  
Kay smiled sheepishly.  
  
“Heard you were too.” Anora replied crossing her arms under her breasts. Rowan enjoyed the view, it was fun having a werewolf girlfriend, especially when it meant she just ruined her clothes every so often.  
  
“Uhuh.” Ciara replied, “You can talk while we walk. I still have to report back in a few hours.”  
  
“That’s plenty of time.” He put in.  
  
Ciara raised an eyebrow at him. The druid rarely humored him, but it was still fun to bug her.  
  
“What’s been going on, and who’s this?” Ciara motioned to Lir as she turned to walk away.  
  
“Oh that’s Lir,” Kailyn said as Lir waved, “They are helping me with um… something.”  
  
Another raised eyebrow.  
  
“We’ll tell you when we aren’t outside.” Rowan put in, “So where were you?”  
  
“Working. Not all of us can go running around harassing trained officers all the time.”  
  
“But I thought that was your job.”  
  
“Why were you picking fights in a bar?”  
  
“Kay had a job.” Rowan said before Kailyn got the chance to blame it on him. She always did.  
  
Ciara looked at Kay.  
  
“What? I need work, and I can keep nasty folk out of here and get paid if I do this.”  
  
“You couldn’t just… build houses or something?”  
  
“I mean, I do that too if someone hires me.”  
  
The druid groaned. Even Ciara knew arguing with Kay got you nowhere. Instead she glanced back over her shoulder at Anora.  
  
“And what are you doing back in town?”  
  
“Back? I live here. I only went briefly to see family. You were the one who left.”  
  
Rowan winced. Ciara and Anora’s banter usually stayed civil. He knew Anora had a thing for the mercenary turned druidic warrior. But Ciara was notoriously hard to read. And while Rowan thought she liked Anora back, they bickered too much to really tell.  
  
“I had training.”  
  
“You always have training.” Kailyn pouted.  
  
“Yes well now I’m back for a bit. And you are all causing problems in my area of the watch.”  
  
“So the city watch DOES patrol the Briars.” Rowan said sarcastically.  
  
“Yes they do. At least a portion, and the Oakhaven guardhouse is taking over this area. Which means-.”  
  
“We kick out more Winter Court goons!” Kay cheered.  
  
“Which means you stop harassing trained soldiers.”  
  
“Aaaw.”  
  
“Kay be serious for two seconds.”  
  
“I am.” Kailyn said, she did drop the happy-go-lucky tone from her voice a little more though, “Ever since you left, there have been fewer watch. And it’s not like the rest of us can kick out guards without any political backing, so we… did it a different way.”  
  
“Well that needs to stop.”  
  
Now Kay actually looked annoyed.  
  
“I mean it.”  
  
“And I mean it. You weren’t here. No one was. What are we supposed to do? And it’s not like they are going to magically start caring just because you’re back. You don’t have a patrol with you.”  
  
Ciara sighed, “No I don’t. I’m working on that.”  
  
“Sooo we keep doing our thing.”  
  
“Why are you set on this?”  
  
Rowan cleared his throat, “We’re here.”  
  
They didn’t usually crash at his place after a fight. But it was closer and currently better stocked in terms of first aid supplies. Kay had burned through her store pretty fast over the last few months. That and his place was far nicer. On the second story, halfway up a thick tree made of vines there were two rooms, not including the kitchen and common room. As everyone filed in Ciara eyed Lir suspiciously.  
  
“I’m getting a shirt.” Anora said and stalked out of the room. Rowan shook his head.  
  
The rest of them exchanged looks briefly, before Kay started rummaging through drawers to find bandages and Lir started making tea.  
  
“So what do I need to be filled in on?”  
  
“Depends, you going to report it back to the watch?”  
  
“Depends on what you tell me.”  
  
“You can’t.” Kay said firmly not looking up.  
  
Ciara looked a little surprised at that.   
  
“Kay’s right. This one has to stay out of your work. So if you have issues with that I’m not saying a thing, and neither are the others.”  
  
The druid sighed, “Alright, what is it.”  
  
“Promise?”  
  
“Fine, I promise I won’t tell the city about this.”  
  
“Good.” Kay mumbled, tearing strips of clean cloth.  
  
“Then Ciara, meet Lir,” Rowan motioned to the fae as if this hadn’t been done already, “Former Knight to the Queen of Air and Darkness and guard of the Winter Court.”  
  
Ciara stood dumbstruck. He relished this, it wasn’t often that he saw that look on the druid’s face.  
  
“Former?” She turned and glared at Rowan.  
  
“Mhmm.” Kay said again, “They ran away, and they owe me a favor. A nice one. Rowan sort of helped.”  
  
“Sort of!” He spat.  
  
But Ciara had gone right up to Lir, who had taken a few steps back, probably not used to humans being that quiet, or quick.  
  
She looked them up and down quickly, “She mark you?”  
  
Lir looked confused.  
  
“It would be gone by now. They forgot their name in order to get away.” He said.  
  
“How?”  
  
“I…” Lir took another step back.  
  
“They wouldn’t remember that either. But Kay has a shield emblazoned with the symbol of the Queen of the Winter Court on her wall, and we saw them take out trained scouts and hunters. Trust me, I’ve been around Her knights to know enough of how they fight.”  
  
Of that he knew she wouldn’t doubt.  
  
“Why are you keeping them?” She glared.  
  
“They are going to help me get rid of Cairbre.” Kay said, standing.  
  
“That is a terrible idea.” Ciara stated, “Besides, they’ll just put someone just as nasty in his place.”  
  
“But it will give the Watch and the Prince a chance to solidify more of a hold on this area.” Rowan said.  
  
He knew Kay didn’t like that idea but it was true. That and it was the lesser of two evils.  
  
“Or the druids could help restore it. This area was once forest.” Kay said.  
  
“We’re spread too thin for that.” Ciara said looking over her shoulder. Kay looked down.  
  
“You.” Ciara pointed to Lir and Rowan was surprised the other fae didn’t jump. “Out.”  
  
Lir looked at Ciara confused, but Kay waved a hand, “It’s ok. Just wait outside a sec.”  
  
“O… K…” Lir said slowly putting a cup down and walking out the door.  
  
Once the door clicked shut Ciara made a sign with her hand. All the noise of the night outside, the chirping evening birds and owls, the skittering of tiny animals around the vines, went silent.  
  
“Why?” She turned to Kay, “Why do this? It’s safer to put them down now. They’ll just kill you later for it.”  
  
“I don’t think so,” Kay said, “You haven’t seen them fight. At this point I doubt they could. But with a little practice they’ll be enough to distract Cairbre during a fight.”  
  
“Distract? What do you mean?”  
  
“Lir lost most of their memory with their old true name. That also means that anything attached to that name, including training, went with it. The muscle memory is there, and they must have had some training before because they know the basics. But Lir’s not a match for a Knight of the Winter Court anymore. If we can get that muscle memory working though, it’d be enough to at least give us one more advantage.”  
  
Rowan stopped and waited for it to sink in.  
  
“You want to use them as bait?”  
  
“Well… yeah I guess.” Kay said.  
  
“And why would Cairbre go after them?”  
  
“Because Maev wants them back,” Rowan went over to take over making the tea Lir had left, “That or dead.”  
  
Ciara stood quietly and watched them both. Again Rowan just couldn’t read her, even though her expression wasn’t exactly stoic. It was just too calm to be normal.  
  
“What if Cairbre finds you first? Before Lir’s caught up a little?”  
  
“Plan’s still the same.” Kailyn said turning away to wash off her hands in the sink.  
  
“It’s just more likely one of you would die.”  
  
“I mean, that’s been a little more likely ever since we started working together hasn’t it?” Rowan said.  
  
Ciara watched the door for a moment. Rowan knew she couldn’t see beyond it, but her gaze always seemed to reach further than he thought. Well that was druids for you. Finally she moved and sat down gently on the couch, using her one remaining arm to lower herself into it. The other arm, missing around mid bicep, was strapped to her. Maybe the movement of it had gotten too distracting during training, or maybe it was just too much of a reminder. But she never talked about it now, and none of them ever brought it up in conversation. Thankfully she didn’t blame them for it, she could have. But putting the blame squarely on the powers that be was a more accurate, and honest, place of blame.  
  
“So what are we doing?”  
  
Kay jumped up and down at that, and he couldn’t help but smile. Having her on their side meant a lot. It meant that they may get some leverage from the Watch, which was good.  
  
“We get Lir back in fighting shape. And we keep as many Winter court patrols out of here as possible.”  
  
“Keeping patrols out was always the plan.”  
  
“Yeah but now we do it to annoy Cairbre. If we target his patrols most of all then he’s more likely to get involved personally.”  
  
“This is insane.”  
  
“But it can work,” Kay smiled, “And if he doesn’t come out of his hidey hole to deal with his guards, then we drop word of a certain place our rogue knight is hiding and get him interested.”  
  
“You so sure that’ll do anything?” Ciara asked.  
  
“You didn’t see the group they sent after them when they escaped. Were you around for the last three days before the full moon? Remember that string of murdered guards?”  
  
“You mean the one’s that were all Maev’s?”  
  
“Yup.” He said, “And guess who they were after?”  
  
Ciara paused, “You’re sure?”  
  
“Yes,” Kailyn said, going over to get a cup of tea. “We saw Lir fight the same kind of hunting hounds the Winter Court uses for a lot of shady killings. They probably were still slowly losing memories when we found them. They also can still fight, it’s just more a chance unconscious survival instinct. Not something we can rely on right now.”  
  
“If they don’t remember anything, that means you could be sending them to a nasty death if this goes wrong. And they wouldn’t even know what they were in for. You really going to do that?”  
  
“Ciara how many knights have you seen kill just because? How many ride in the Wild Hunt?” Rowan said, “They might not remember anything, that doesn’t mean they didn’t do the same things Cairbre did.”  
  
“Did they say why they left?”  
  
He and Kailyn exchanged looks.  
  
“Because I can tell you exactly what they’ve done.” Ciara said evenly, “But I want to know what they said first.”

 


	6. Faerie Fire Shields and Night Time Reels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kay, Rowan, and Anora get some disturbing information about Lir.
> 
> And everyone tries to get up from their own wreckage.

Lir sat outside on the edge of the landing that made up the entrance to Rowan’s house. The lights and spelled lanterns of the Briars glittered among the brown and green mounds like fallen stars. It was so beautiful here. Nothing like the elegance of the castles in the distance. Just simple, pretty things that made the night a little warmer.  
  
Not that it needed to be. It was plenty warm. They weren’t at the solstice yet but it would be here soon enough. They could feel the change in the air. Even if the lingering light in the sky was the most obvious indicator.  
  
They were trying to count their breaths. Holding it a little in between each inhale and exhale. They had been taught that when they were young, though they weren’t sure whether it was for training, or for something else. It was calming though, and they needed that. Remembering how to use magic was difficult, and the explosion of realization just now hurt. They knew knights were renowned for using fairy fire in a way that made a shield. Usually it was a personal one to prevent injury during a fight, though holding it for an extended length of time was difficult. It was that one thing they did remember. Trying to hold it up against all odds. Against iron. It wasn’t possible as far as they knew. But they remembered trying to because…  
  
Lir rubbed their eyes and looked down. They weren’t that high up but they were getting dizzy so they moved away from the edge. Fairy fire wasn’t supposed to extend much beyond one’s own form. They used it to protect others. That had been wrong somehow. They remember being told not to do that.  
  
Why?  
  
They had used it to… to stop something. To prevent…  
  
She hadn’t liked it. Whatever it was. She had not liked it one bit.  
  
It was then that the door swung open and Kailyn came out onto the landing. Lir was leaning against the wall and was glad that they were. The next few moments made no sense, because Kailyn stormed over and slapped them across the face. They didn’t stagger, braced against the wall as they were, but their head snapped to one side and something else happened. Everything slipped away for a moment, just a moment, but that was enough for a horrible feeling to creep back in. Like cold hands closing around their throat. When their vision came back they were staring at a red faced angry witch.  
  
“I should hate you-” Was the only bit they caught of what Kay was saying before they stormed off.  
  
They heard Rowan call after them, but Anora stepped in to stop him. It was at that point that they saw the one armed druid standing at the door.  
  
Ciara was watching the whole scene quietly. Despite their earlier assumptions you could see some emotion in her face. What looked like sadness, and maybe a little remorse. Still she looked on quietly. Rowan and Anora both turned to look at them after a moment. Well, Rowan did. Anora glanced up and then looked back down, a confused hurt look on her face.  
  
What made it worse was that they couldn’t speak. They couldn’t say anything and they weren’t sure why. Even when they made an attempt they couldn’t get any air into their lungs.  
  
It was then that they realized they hadn’t been breathing.  
  
Lir put a hand back on the wall and tried again to take a breath.  
  
It wasn’t Anora, or even Rowan who walked over to put a hand on their shoulder, but the druid.  
  
“Don’t focus on your throat. Breathe into your chest.” She said.  
  
They watched her confused. Why would they breathe? They didn’t have to when they were told… when they were told not to. Don’t breathe, it’s a distraction. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound.  
  
“No. Look at me.” They looked up.  
  
Dark eyes met theirs. A mane of thick black hair tinged with gold framed a sharp jaw line.  
  
“Breathe. Breathe in.”  
  
They tried.  
  
“Breathe in.”  
  
A sliver of air filled their chest.  
  
“Breathe out.”  
  
Lir winced, there was so little air in their lungs to begin with having nothing just felt like their chest was going to cave.  
  
“It’s alright, keep breathing.”  
  
After a few more minutes their chest was finally rising and falling naturally without them thinking about it. Rowan and Anora had gotten a little bit closer, but still seemed to be giving them room. What was going on?  
  
“What do you remember?”  
  
Lir looked up at Ciara again, “I… don’t? I don’t know what you mean…”  
  
The pity in her eyes worried more than calmed them.  
  
“Should I tell you?”  
  
It felt strange for someone to ask permission like that. Like the things they should remember were something they had a choice in. But technically now they did, at least to some extent. At least when others would let them choose.  
  
“What happened?”  
  
She took a breath. Both Rowan and Anora were studying the ground, or the wall. Neither looked at them.  
  
“About a hundred years ago I saw you do the same thing you did tonight. It was during the last war between the Courts. Except then it was around my home district, not the people standing behind you. I’m not sure if someone ordered you too protect it or not. If your High Lady was trying to keep the district nice for herself when she inevitably took it over. But I saw you protect my home. After your troops had turned the streets red.”  
  
Lir was again finding it hard to focus. Her words made their vision blur.  
  
“The only other time I saw you was when I was a child again.”  
  
Again? Wouldn’t that have come first?  
  
“After I died that night you stopped the Summer Lady from burning my home to the ground, I saw you again, here, in my next life. I saw you take Kailyn’s grandmother to Cairbre. And when I tried to stop you you took my arm. I was about ten at the time. Kailyn was five.”  
  
Their first reaction was to say no. No that couldn’t be right. But this wasn’t just a back ally diviner they were looking at. Druids were known for auguries, for second sight that could see behind glamours, and for their memory. They should have said no. They should have said they did not want to know. But that wouldn’t have helped in the long run would it? There was no way to get away from everything.  
  
All they could do now was sit, dazed and confused, on the floor.  
  
“I’m not here to blame you.” Ciara said, “I’m not here to play judge or executioner. But I don’t think it’s fair that you don’t know why someone is mad at you. I also don’t think forgetting something like that is fair, but that is neither here nor there.”  
  
“What I do know is that you aren’t what you were. And I’m not expending energy being mad at a thing that isn’t here anymore. Even if I wish it was.”  
  
“Wish I was…?” They looked up, it was still hard to see, smoke seemed to cloud their vision.   
  
“Oh I wish you were the same person.” The druid said evenly, “I’ve wanted to see you dead for a while now. But your soul isn’t the one I saw drag an old woman to her death. Whether that’s because you can’t be the same thing that was your old name, or because Maev held to much control over your spirit before doesn’t matter. You don’t have the same eyes.”  
  
“I don’t remember… I’m sorry.”  
  
“And I’m sorry.” She said, pulling them up.  
  
The world spun for a second, and they stumbled a little as they got to their feet. Ciara helped them, steadying them as they tried to get their bearings. Why she was doing this still didn’t make sense. Sure druids could see through glamours. It made sense that she would be able to tell who they were even if they looked the same as any other guard at the times she had seen them. She might not be spending energy being angry, but that didn’t mean she needed to be helpful.  
  
To their inquiring look Ciara just smiled grimly.  
  
“You said that Maev needed to be stopped. That she was planning on taking the King’s crown,” She paused as if looking for the right words, “‘One way or another’ I think is how you put it to Rowan and Kay the first night you stayed with them. You also said several things I won’t repeat, but that amounted to you needing to get away from her.”  
  
“I know why you took the chance and ran.” She continued, “But I’m sorry you can either stay and try to stop her, or run the second you are allowed to again. It’s one or the other, you can’t have both, and I’m going to tell you now that there’s a very big chance you won’t accomplish either.”  
  
“But can I accomplish something?”  
  
They were surprised at the sound of their own voice. It didn’t sound like theirs. It didn’t sound anything like what they thought was them. And it surprised Ciara enough that it registered on her face.  
  
“Depends on what it is.”  
  
“Can I keep my promise to Kay?”  
  
“That you might be able to do.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

Kay ran until they couldn’t run anymore. Then they staggered down roadways. It was easy to get lost here, and they didn’t bother paying attention to much right now. By the time they sat down they were gods knew how far away from Rowan’s, and they weren’t even sure if they were in the same district.  
  
They were also too out of breath to sob, so they just sat there and coughed, and cried. They should have known better. It was that simple. They knew what knights were. They knew what they could do. They had just wanted things to move to quickly. They wanted this over because…  
  
Because they were racing time.   
  
Kay looked up at the stars.  
  
It had been too easy to get attached to Lir. Too easy to start thinking of them as part of the group. Of course it would be, they had very little personality left after what they did. And what a cop-out. Forgetting everything was too easy.  
  
Easy… sort of. Kailyn knew why, and that just made it harder. It was hard to be mad at them and that was the worst part.  
  
Kay stuffed their face in their knees and a hand in the dirt. The ground in the corner up against this building was soft and mossy. The dew soaked earth cooled the heat in their palm. Kailyn soaked up the cold, drew it into themself. All they wanted was for the headache to go away now, and to be back home in bed.  
  
Slowly dragging themself to their feet Kailyn felt something nearby. There were tugs and nudges against the air when something moved. They had learned to keep a close eye on those tugs. But this time, the big silvery beast that rounded the corner wasn’t a thing Kay was afraid of.  
  
The witch moved over and collapsed against the werewolf’s side. A furry head nudged her hand.  
  
“Yeah let’s just… go home.”  
  
Kay climbed up on Anora’s back and half dozed all they way back to their home district. The wolf had to almost drop them off her side in order to get the witch to wake up.  
  
Opening the front door of most of the places Kay stayed was pretty complicated. But at this point they knew the locks by heart. It wasn’t very long before they were stumbling inside.  
  
Anora caught them and lead them into the shower. Kailyn was too tired to actually take one, but both of them rinsed off before Anora let Kailyn fall into bed.  
  
They curled up against Anora’s chest and buried their face in her breasts. Their partner made a slight humming sound and wrapped an arm around them.  
  
“It’ll look better in the morning.” Anora reassured them.  
  
“How? I don’t want anything to do with them but I can’t throw them out.”  
  
“You could. But I wouldn’t worry about that right now.”  
  
Kay bit their lip and rolled over.  
  
“I just want this over.”  
  
“We all do.” Anora wrapped both arms around her, “But it’s not that easy.”  
  
“It should be.”  
  
A hand stroked their hair.  
  
“Just wait till tomorrow things will look a little better with the morning.”  
  
Kay sniffled a little and curled up, “I’m sorry.”  
  
“For what?”  
  
“I… I just thought it was nice having someone around who… I don’t know.”  
  
“Didn’t call all your plans crazy?”  
  
They rubbed tears out of their eyes.  
  
“Kay, we want you to be ok. And if there was any way I could get you to give up on this crazy revenge quest I would.” Anora said and her low sultry voice that made them all warm and fuzzy inside. “But I know I can’t. I know what this means to you. You could try not rushing to your death every once in a while though.”  
  
“I don’t know what to do if I’m not getting swords pointed at me.” They mumbled.  
  
“Live a little?”  
  
They stifled a sob and stuffed their face in the covers. Anora wrapped the arm she had around them a little tighter.  
  
“No one else is going to make him pay for what he did. And Lir… Lir isn’t even the same person. There’s no point in bothering to try to make them understand what… I just don’t see how someone could even do that and…”  
  
They went quite and Anora did the same. Huddling in the dark, with their back to their partner they just buried their head in a pillow.  
  
When the finally stopped crying and calmed down Anora ran her fingers through their hair.  
  
“What is it you really want?”  
  
“I want… I want him to understand what he did.”  
  
“You know that won’t happen.”  
  
Kay bit their lip.  
  
“You could try protecting this place to just protect it, instead of just to get back at someone.”  
  
They turned over looking confused, “I do just want to protect it, I live here.”  
  
“Yeah but you’ve been obsessed with this for a while now. And people are just starting to see your anger, not how much you care.”  
  
Kailyn looked away from Anora’s face and hugged her, “I didn’t mean that.”  
  
“I’m not saying you can’t be angry.” Anora said softly, “I’m just saying that… well try to think of the other reasons you’re doing what you do? You started out just protecting and helping this place. Yeah it wasn’t all that easy or exactly what any of us thought it would be. But… live here Kay. Live with us? I know you get passionate about things and I love that, but that doesn’t mean that’s always a good thing.”  
  
Kay nuzzled Anora’s neck, causing their partner to squirm a little.  
  
“I’m sorry, I am here.”  
  
“I know, and I’m sorry I can’t help more. I know this is important.”  
  
Kay wished they could tell her just how important. Wished they could explain the things they’d seen and the reason this needed to happen as soon as possible. But that was a big chance. There were too many things and she wasn’t the seer her grandmother had been. But…  
  
“Look I know this is going to sound crazy but… we need to do this for more than just protecting our home. It’s…”  
  
“What?”  
  
Kailyn took a breath, “We’re all going to end up dead if we can’t figure out a way to stop Maev. And Cairbre? He’s part of that, a big part.”  
  
“I do want to protect everyone,” They continued, “I really do. And yeah it’s probably some hatred that makes me want this to be over so badly. But really? I just want everyone safe. I just want my family safe.”  
  
Anora stared at them in silence. It wasn’t as if this was the first time they had told Anora about something like this. Something they had seen or been told while working with spirits. But most of those talks had sort of messed things up after. Which meant both of them would be expecting things to go down the shoot real soon.  
  
“We’re in trouble aren’t we?”  
  
“Yeah maybe just a bit.”

 

* * *

 

 

The druid walked quietly down the wide street, halberd over her shoulder. The long silver weapon was tipped with iron. It was making Anora uncomfortable and Ciara found that slightly amusing.  
  
Ever since she had left to train under the druid order outside the city they hadn’t talked much. Anora wasn’t one for letters and Ciara wasn’t allowed to visit. It had been years since she had been back here, though it seems not much had changed, it’s just that the nature of the trouble they were in had changed.  
  
The others didn’t know it but there was more tension between the Winter Court and the human nobility now more than ever. What Kailyn had said about why Lir left made sense. While most fae probably agreed with the Winter Queen ruling the area, there were definitely some in her court that did not like that idea. And very few people knew if Maev wanted to go through with the effort of taking the city, though it was starting to seem more likely.  
  
But she wanted them to understand what they were getting into, because this could very well destabilize the balance that the ruling bodies of this area had set up. A dead knight would mean retribution, and they were going to need protection from that.  
  
“I’m sorry.” Ciara finally said, Anora shot her a confused glance before turning back to look at the road.  
  
“For what?”  
  
“For taking so long.”  
  
“I thought most druids trained for 20 years at least.”  
  
“I’m not done training. But seclusion isn’t an option right now.”  
  
“They really send you back after only 5 years?”  
  
Ciara sighed, “I asked to come back. I have teachers here. Besides, we need more mediators in the city, and the King does not know how to negotiate with fae. At least, not well enough.”  
  
“So you’re doing what?”  
  
“Back filling for the ones leaving Oakhaven to act as mediators.”  
  
Anora fell silent for a few moments and then changed the subject.  
  
“Where are we going?”  
  
“Guard house. I need someone to swear as witness that there are too many patrols in the area we are trying to take care of.”  
  
Anora groaned.  
  
“It’s the most likely way I can get more people to help me watch the place. And the only way I can make you part of the city watch.”  
  
“The what?!” Anora stopped.  
  
“You heard me.” She turned, “We’re going to have too many issues if you all keep trying to do this on your own.”  
  
“But what about the others?”  
  
“You and Kay can say they work for you.”  
  
“Work for?”  
  
Ciara sighed, “There probably won’t be any Watch patrols in the area for a while. But we can enlist citizens to be part of the Watch if needed, and we do need it.”  
  
“Why bring me?”  
  
“Because Rowan and Lir won’t garner me any favors, it would look suspicious if I brought fae. Kailyn is possibly wanted by one of the Courts, and Noland refuses to fight. So it’s you.”  
  
Anora frowned. It was almost as if she was waiting for a different answer than that. Ciara honestly wasn’t sure what else she expected. It was true, Kay was possibly wanted and the other two would make her intentions look suspicious.  
  
“So what’s the plan then? What do we do when we are city watch?”  
  
“You keep those patrols out of that district. Same as before.”   
  
“And what?”  
  
“And follow Kay’s plan.”  
  
Anora scoffed, “I almost thought you were going to have some brilliant scheme. Losing touch?”  
  
Ciara tilted her head, “Why are you so snappy?”  
  
“I’m not-”  
  
“You are. You have been since we first exchanged words last night.”  
  
Anora raised an eyebrow, “Wow look at you speaking all proper.”  
  
Ciara rolled her eyes.  
  
“Fine, you just left without saying goodbye is all.”  
  
She had, that was true. But she didn’t think it would matter that much. She told Kay where she was going and why. That she was tired of trying to just fight her way through everything. Druidry was as much memorization and stories as it was any kind of physical practice. They were first and foremost arbiters and stewards. It had given meaning to what she had considered a meaningless existence. Being a mercenary was difficult when the people who could pay you the most were often of the sort of stock you hated.  
  
But for some reason this absence had upset Anora, and when she had gotten a brief few days to visit a few years ago Anora had just left before she could get back. She hadn’t thought much of it then. Now it seemed like it may have been on purpose.  
  
“I’m sorry. It was a sudden choice and I didn’t have much time.”  
  
“Yeah, sure.”  
  
Anora just looked down at the broken stone road.  
  
“I’m sorry if I hurt you.”  
  
She didn’t look up. Didn’t bother to give any indication that she had heard. It was at that moment that Ciara was starting to realize this had meant a little more to Anora than she had previously thought. Still, it didn’t change what they had to do right now.  
  
“Hey, chin up,” The command came out a little more forcefully than she meant it and Anora glared, “We’re here.”  
  
The guardhouse was built in a winding spiral around a large tree. Plants this close to the Briars tended to be larger and more sprawling than normal, and this tree was no exception. The branches above provided natural shading around the entrance as they approached. It was sort of like walking under a storm cloud, in more ways than one. Ciara hated actually working with most of the city watch, but it was necessary. Necessary because there weren’t enough druids to do what they had once done. Necessary because too many of them were still ending up dead.  
  
Pushing open the heavy door she stepped into a room buzzing with activity. Shifts were switching out and information exchanged. This was the dispatch area, and while no sensitive information was supposed to be given in here Anora still received several nasty looks. Though perhaps that was more them being in the way of people trying to get out quick after their shift ended.  
  
Ciara made a be-line for the Captains office, Anora in tow. People cleared out of her way, especially when they saw Anora. Being that tall was something she hated, Ciara knew, but it really did come in handy. Especially when on a normal day neither Rowan, nor Lir, were very imposing.  
  
The thick wooden door swung open at a touch, it as well knew to stay out of her way when she needed to get things done.  
  
Both of them stepped into a well lit simple room. There were papers strewn all over the desk, but aside from that nothing else was messy at all. One of the windows was propped open to let in a summer breeze.  
  
Captain Garbhán was a tall human man with tan skin and dark brown hair. His eyes were a slightly lighter brown that almost looked like pine bark. Ciara gave him a customary small nod but that was it. Druids rarely saluted anyone, watch or no. There true allegiance always lay with the land, and as arbiters of the peace. So while several had joined the watch and the city guard, none of them truly supported either organization. And while the guard would rather not have them on board, they were very good at settling disputes. VERY good.  
  
So when the captain gave her an annoyed look she just stared back at him. Good luck buddy, you know how this works.  
  
“I suppose you have a report for what happened last night?”  
  
“I submitted that to the clerk this morning. If he hasn’t given it to you yet then that is a failing on his part.” She replied evenly.  
  
The Captain frowned but continued, “Then what is it you’re here for, and who is this?”  
  
“This is Anora. She and a few others helped me end the fighting last night. Since we don’t have an official group patrolling the area I am now responsible for, I am recommending her and her group as civilian watch.”  
  
The Captain sighed. She knew he didn’t have anyone picked for those patrols, they were spread thin. But this was a way to get that done and he was going to take it. Negotiation was a very common thing taught amongst druids, and she had a very good sense of when she was going to get what she wanted.  
  
“What reason do I have other than that to let them do this?”  
  
“Because you want that patrol route off your hands as fast as possible. We only have a few civilian patrols out right now and it won’t draw much attention to add one more. And…”  
  
Ciara looked up at her friend for a moment, then back to her superior.  
  
“You wouldn’t want to shun the help of a wolf of Ossory would you?”  
  
The Captain looked at Anora and then at her.  
  
“If she reports to me, fine. But I’m not leaving you in charge of a civilian group after just returning.”  
  
Ciara just nodded, and turned to leave.  
  
“Oh, and Ciara?”  
  
“Yes,” She said, looking back over her shoulder.  
  
“Please leave the report with me next time, I’ll be assigning you a partner as well.”  
  
Ciara gave him a deadpan stare. She did not want anyone else involved in this but… oh well. If what Anora had told her before was true, this was going to get much worse very soon.  
  
“Alright, tell me when.”  
  
“You’re dismissed.”  
  
Already at the door she smiled inwardly to herself. You wish pal.  
  
Once outside Anora turned to her with a hurt look.   
  
“Did you have to-?”  
  
“Yes, he wasn’t going to agree unless he thought you’d be capable. And we don’t have time to put you through any tests they would give you.”  
  
“You know. I missed you… But you’re an ass.”  
  
“Missed you too hunny.”  
  
She didn’t look over, but she could tell from the air that Anora let some of the tension slip away. This relationship was going to be difficult to put back together, and she didn’t have the time. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try. All you could ever do was try.

 


	7. Long Odds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you don't want to flee a city after you commit murder in it what do you do?
> 
> Gain the favor of the rich of course.
> 
> Knowing that they need something in order to not be immediately hunted down, Kay and company come up with the brilliant idea (actually it was Rowan's idea so they can blame him later) of entering the Midsummer Festival Tournament. Meaning they need to place at least second in most events they compete in, and probably first if they want the protection they're looking for.
> 
> Otherwise they're going to be just as bad off as Lir was when they ran away.

Rowan yanked on the strings to tighten the leather bracers around his forearms. It wasn’t like this was going to be a big fight, but just to be safe he made sure some of the banded metal armor he had traded for a few winters ago was snug around his chest.  
  
“This is a bad idea.” Ahearn said from his place perched on Rowan’s couch. Over in another corner Ciara was getting Lir into another set of small banded armor. While Lir made worried faces at her.  
  
“We need the money, one, and two it’ll draw out our friend a little more.”  
  
“He’s just going to throw more lackeys at you. He doesn’t care about fighting peasants.”  
  
“We’ll make him care.” Rowan smirked.  
  
Ciara was still quietly working away as Lir twisted their head to look over, “What exactly are we doing again?”  
  
Rowan stood and tested the tightness of the greaves, he hadn’t been in full armor in a while.  
  
“We are joining the midsummer tournament.”  
  
“Won’t that mean more guards and also… Maev?”  
  
“Sort of,” Rowan said, “I doubt the Queens will attend anything but the finale. Chances are we can show off in front of other royalty though.”  
  
“Unless you can win, they won’t care.” Ahearn interjected.  
  
“I can win.” He said, smiling as he finished strapping greaves over his boots. Normally he favored much lighter armor, but tournament regulations required this, and for entry fights you had to have a certain minimum on that was non-negotiable. Mostly because they tried to make a show of not wanting everyone to get murdered.  
  
Ciara snorted.   
  
“What you have a better idea?”  
  
The druid gave him her typical dead pan stare and said, “You better win. We need to make an impression. If we want any protection from the guard or the royal house you have to.”  
  
“You’d be better running from the city after this.” Ahearn said, “If you do manage to kill the asshole, you’re still going to be wanted criminals.”  
  
“Only as far as the Winter Court is concerned.” Rowan replied.  
  
“This is insane. Trying to kill a knight in the first place is a terrible idea. On top of that seeking asylum with either the humans or the Summer Court is going to be nigh impossible. It would be seen as an open act of violence between courts.”  
  
“Not if there is a pre-existing agreement of protection.” The druid pointed out.  
  
“Which could be easily revoked.” Ahearn glanced over at Ciara with a frown.  
  
“Not if you’re one of us.” Rowan said.  
  
Ahrean fell silent for a while. Ciara hadn’t wanted to update him on the full plan. But they did need him to get information on opponents and get them forged documents so they could participate. Rowan could participate under his own name of course, it was perfectly legal for anyone who passed the entry tests to do so. But that would mean letting the Winter Court know they were there, and Rowan wanted to save that for later.  
  
“You know Aine won’t welcome you back with open arms.”  
  
“Yeah, I know.”  
  
He could feel Ciara watching him at this point. Kay was the only person who really knew what kind of trouble Rowan had been in at the end. Even Ahearn couldn’t get permission to see him, even though technically Rowan had been working for him. But the Winter Court refused visitors since he had been a spy, and getting caught was possibly the worst offense there is to the fae. He had been a dead man. At least, he had thought he was.  
  
“What about you?” Ahearn said looking at Ciara, finally getting up to get his own gear. “You’re participating?”  
  
“Yes, but only in the oratory. I can’t participate in archery or jousting. And the only way you receive high honors is if you can finish all three main events in first place, win the spell song competition, or be awarded the title of Storyteller.”  
  
“I thought bards mostly competed for the last two titles?”  
  
“They do. That doesn’t mean anyone can’t enter.”  
  
Ahearn frowned, “That’s not going to be easy, druid or no. I know you may be trained in memorization of our history, but bards received similar training don’t they?”  
  
Ciara stood, patting Lir’s chest plate to make sure it stayed in place.  
  
“I never said it would be easy. I said I was going to do it. Druids train a lot of bards anyway. We often compete amongst ourselves, just not publicly. Besides I have a better chance at winning the one trial than Rowan has of placing better than third in all three main competitions.”  
  
“Hey!”  
  
Rowan glared but Ciara just smirked slightly and walked for the door. Ahearn picked up his own weapons and followed, as did Lir. Rowan had already strapped a sword to his belt and a kite shield to his back. All other weapons would be provided at the tournament.  
  
As they neared the door Ahearn turned to him and his looked softened. It wasn’t often Rowan saw that kind of worry in his partner’s eyes, but it always caught him off-guard when he did.  
  
“I don’t like this.”  
  
“I know. I’m sorry.”  
  
“Seriously though what are they going to do?” Ahearn said point a thumb in Lir’s direction.  
  
“Plan B?”  
  
“What?” Both Lir and Ahearn said at the same time.  
  
“If I can’t win, they need to at least place first for unmounted combat.”  
  
“You’re kidding.”  
  
“Nope.” Ciara said from in front of them as they left the house.   
  
Lir was still looking uncomfortable as they met Kailyn and Anora outside. Anora looked fine and gave Rowan a small nod. The witch ducked her head, looking like an embarrassed child as Ciara walked up to her. Kailyn did glance in Rowan’s direction briefly, but quickly turned back to the druid.  
  
As everyone started walking the two took the lead with Anora behind them. Ahearn walked with him and Lir lagged behind. That was understandable, but they still needed to stay together. Regardless of their luck so far, there was a chance they could get caught. All of them.  
  
“What’re they so skittish about?” Ahearn asked quietly as Lir drifted a little further away again.  
  
“Don’t worry about it.” Ahearn was probably going to keep asking. But Rowan knew better than to spill any information involving Kay. As innocent as she looked the witch could be exceedingly terrifying.  
  
So Ahearn gave him an arched eyebrow, but that was it. His partner had been very curious about Lir in general, but as much information as he could get he wanted. Still asking Lir with the others around was a bad idea and Rowan planned on keeping it that way. Lir had mostly learned to be a little less talkative, but Ahearn was very good at encouraging people to talk.  
  
The rest of the walk passed in silence however. It was too early in the morning and even Ciara, who was usually up with the sun, looked tired. The winding dirt roads of the Briars gave way to slate walkways and more well kept building fronts as they continued on toward the tourney fields. Grass peeked around the stone slabs laid to make the roads easier for carts. Small flowers lined all the trails around here, and the buildings all sported some form of garden, whether it was in front of the house or hanging down from a window. Then there came the trees. A large portion of this area were broad circular houses under the cover of a forest.  
  
It was strange how familiar a place could be, even when you hadn’t been back in ages. He hadn’t seen this place for at least 20 years, have spent most of that time as an informant on the other court.  
  
The tents in the open clearing were the most nostalgic sight of them all, and he paused when he saw them. The tournament field was divided into three parts. One for mounted challenges, another for unmounted combat, and the third for bardic and storyteller competitions. The flags of both Courts, Summer and Winter, flew over every part of the field. As did the flag for the crown.  
  
And as terrible an idea as this was, finally something felt right.  
  
“Rowan”  
  
He looked down to see Ciara, Anora, Kailyn, and Ahearn a little further down the hill. The only person still standing near him was Lir.  
  
“What?”  
  
“You coming?” Kay said smiling a little.  
  
“Yeah, yeah.”  
  
But as he started down the hill he could have sworn that out of the corner of his eye he saw a smile cross Lir’s face as well. When he looked back Lir was giving him the customary confused child look.   
  
He wasn’t sure why this felt right. Still it would make sense, even bad homes had still been home at some point. And it always felt a little good coming home.

 

* * *

 

 

Thank the gods for the smallest favors.  
You don’t know when you’ll need a big one.  
  
TW: Trauma reaction and flashbacks.   
  
  
  
  
  
It was one of those “How did I get here?” situations. Because they honestly did not remember how they got here. They remembered heading into one of the tents on the tourney field. Wishing Rowan luck. Talking with Kay and Anora. Then they were here.  
  
Here was a small circular arena, that was fenced off only by a low wooden fence. The crowd gathered was mostly standing except for those in small raised stages around the battle ground. Those must have been the judges. At least, that was what they thought Kay had said. Because while most matches were pretty decisive, occasionally there was a point where both combatants ended up unconscious and ties weren’t allowed in the preliminaries. Neither was magic, which was really hard when you were still trying to figure out controlling it in the first place.  
  
Lir just barely made it out of the way of the next swing. Most people competing had chosen heavier weapons than the bastard sword they were using. But most of their opponents were a bit taller. Having a shield was one of the better ways to get in close without taking to many nasty hits.  
  
Their opponent brought the longsword around and grazed the armor on their upper right arm. It didn’t get through, it was rare that a blow immediately got through full plate. But that didn’t mean the force of the blow didn’t send them stumbling.  
  
Pressing the advantage their competitor two handed the next strike. It bounced of their shield but again the force behind it cause them to take a half step back. This was slowly devolving into one of their matches with Kay and that was bad.  
  
In trying to gain some ground they rushed in after the last swing and brought their sword around toward their opponents head. But it got caught on his armor and was wrenched from Lir’s hands. In another second they collided with the fence, the pain from the blow to the head not registering till after.  
  
Blurry eyed they watched the figure before them charge forward. They barely managed to duck out of the way, but ended up on the other side of the ring from their sword. Concussion aside, Kay was going to murder them. How were they back up again?  
  
Unhitching the upper strap on their shield was a strange course of action at this point… but it did work out in the end. Lir’s movement was pretty restricted in the armor, but their opponents was worse. They ducked the next swing and brought the shield around into the other fighter’s knee. With the strap unbuckled the force didn’t yank their arm out of their socket, which was good. It still hurt but it pulled on their bracer more than their actual arm.  
  
The other fighter staggered. Lir pulled themself up off the ground and ran at him again. With the man off balance Lir landed another blow with the shield to his opponents hip, then brought the back of the shield around into the man’s face.  
  
That sent him sprawling on the ground. A few seconds passed, which felt like minutes, eventually a loud noise caught their attention. Looking around they realized the crowd was loudly talking and cheering. Part of the fence was opened so a few healers could quickly check on their downed opponent. Lir was also brought out of the ring and their sword returned to them. Just as they were pulling the shield off their arm a figured darted up to them and wrapped their arms around them.  
  
“YES!” Kay shouted loudly and grinned, “That was GREAT!”  
  
Lir just stood their, blinking. A few seconds later Kay had let them go and was awkwardly holding his hands behind his back.  
  
“Good job.” Ciara said, coming up behind Kailyn. She was dressed in armor as well, but with a much more fitted look than Lir’s. The extra padding underneath had helped in the end though.  
  
Lir removed their helmet and cap. Kay looked surprised and immediately stood on his tip toes to see the top of Lir’s head. They drew back quickly.  
  
“Oh stop it you’re bleeding. I’m just making sure it’s nothing bad.”  
  
“I… what?”  
  
“It’s fine Kay, it’ll heal.”  
  
Kay frowned at the druid.  
  
“We should go. Leave your helmet on for now and come.” Ciara said as she lead them off.  
  
The witch awkwardly followed after. It looked like he didn’t know how close to walk to Lir. And it didn’t help that Lir wasn’t sure about that either. Kailyn had been distant and moody, and hadn’t spoken very much to them after that night they…  
  
Looking down they winced, the adrenaline was wearing off quickly, much more quickly than they would have liked.  
  
“Where are we going?” Lir asked, looking up at Ciara.  
  
“Hopefully Rowan is done by now. And I don’t want to leave Ahearn and Anora alone to long.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Because they’ll tear each other’s throats out, literally.” Kay answered.  
  
“Oh… uh… don’t they both… like Rowan?”  
  
“Yup.” Both Ciara and Kailyn answered in unison.  
  
“Um.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it. Anora can take him.” Kay said, smiling.  
  
Ciara raised an eyebrow and kept walking. Looking over her shoulder at Lir every once in a while. That was getting a little uncomfortable until they stopped outside the tourney field. A joust was still going on, though it was getting late so this was probably the last one of they day.  
  
There wasn’t enough room to get close. The crowd was too thick. But you could see the competitors lining up on either side of the field. A pang of familiarity hit Lir a little to hard in the chest. Wincing they shut their eyes for a second. Looking back up the riders had already started off toward each other.  
  
They recognized Rowan’s armor easily now. It was far to similar to something they had once seen him wear years ago. Maybe that was on purpose. It wasn’t as if it was easily distinguishable from some of the other competitors, but if you knew what to look for…  
  
The first round both riders missed.  
  
As they were setting back up Lir had the odd sensation of both standing where they were, and on the tourney field. They were helping someone cheat. They knew that much. But exactly how they weren’t sure.  
  
Second round, and they were off. This happened much faster than the first and Rowan took a glancing blow to his shield. It didn’t unseat him though.  
  
They were loosening a strap on a saddle. Not enough to be terribly noticeable, but just enough. When they had tried to refuse to help the night before she had injured them. Said they would only be a retainer this year. Something like that?  
  
The injury on their side still hurt.  
  
The third match both lances broke.  
  
It was obvious Rowan knew what he was doing, his opponent almost lost his balance. He came around and grabbed the lance without completely slowly his mount. Hoisting it at the ready well before his opponent.  
  
Lir stood quietly next to the rider on the tourney field, having handed over the lance. Waiting for instruction.  
  
“Make me a shield. You time it wrong and you know what’ll happen.”  
  
They just nodded. The feeling of being in two places was much worse. They could feel their hands slip off the leather of the saddle and felt their feet back away. But they weren’t moving. They were still right where they had stopped to watch before.  
  
Rowan kicked his horse into a gallop.  
  
They saw him level the lance, they already knew the outcome.  
  
There was a loud crash, which sounded both right in front of them and far away. Rowan’s opponent toppled off their horse.  
  
Their side was burning. The use of magic right after being wounded by iron was difficult even if they were trained to do it. But they had timed it right and the other rider’s lance never touched his opponent. The force of the collision had unbalanced him, and the knight Lir was working under finished the job. The other rider fell to the ground with a splinter of wood in their shoulder.  
  
Lir bit their lip but that was all they could do. The healers would deal with the other rider, if he wasn’t dead already. Their knight was coming back around. Automatically they helped guide the horse back into the stables behind the field without thinking. They were there to help after all, that was what they were told to do.  
  
A gloved hand shoved them against the outer stable wall.  
  
“Keep this up and maybe you’ll be reinstated after this tournament.”  
  
They didn’t move, didn’t breathe. A finger raised their chin to look up. They couldn’t see the face, most of the area was too blurry for some reason. But they knew the look they were getting turned their stomach.  
  
Then they were staring back at the tourney field. At a cheering crowd. And at Rowan raising his broken lance, soaking it all in.  
  
They only vaguely heard Kailyn call their name before they lost their balance and fell to their knees, one arm wrapped around their abdomen. Their side burned. Even if there really was no wound. Heart pounding they tried to slow their breathing just enough. Just enough to speak.  
  
“Hey…”  
  
“I’m fine.”  
  
They saw Kailyn and Ciara exchange looks.  
  
“I will be fine.” They amended.  
  
“Alright…” Kailyn said, helping them back to their feet, “What can we do?”  
  
“We should see Rowan right?” They looked over to two concerned expressions, “He won?”  
  
“Yes.” Ciara replied simply.  
  
“Good.” They smiled slightly, “I’ll have to watch next time.”  
  
Kailyn bit his lip and Ciara frowned.  
  
“Can you walk?” the witch asked.  
  
Lir nodded and shifted their weight enough to balance out the stinging in their side. It was fading, but not fast enough to make the trip down the hill easy.  
  
“You’re lucky you remember something at least.” Ciara finally broke the silence.  
  
They didn’t say anything. But they did give her a puzzled look.  
  
“You’d completely fade if you didn’t.”  
  
Small favors. Though instead of running away they were running toward the thing they had been trying to get away from in the first place. At least this way they didn’t know what they would be getting themself into until it was too late.  
  
Again, small favors.

 

* * *

 

 

The banded leather armor was a bit tighter than she remembered. But it still fit and that was what mattered. There were a few metal plates, and arm guards, but most of it was hardened leather and maille. It was much more easy to maneuver in, and for her that made all the difference. She left off the war paint though, it would be disrespectful to do that, this wasn’t a war. Not yet.  
  
Picking up the longsword set down on the table she didn’t bother sheathing it, she was headed right to the arena after all.  
  
“Anora?”  
  
She turned to find Kay standing at the opening to the tent. This wasn’t really their tent, it was just one of the many set up for competitors to get ready. So this needed to be brief.   
  
“What?”  
  
“What are you doing?”  
  
She sighed. “Kay…”  
  
“You can’t do this please. They’ll recognize you.”  
  
“Even if they do, doing something during the tournament would be really damn hard.”  
  
“But they could manage.”  
  
“You let Lir do this though.”  
  
The witch bit their lip, “That’s different.”  
  
“How?”  
  
Kay’s shoulders dropped, “It’s more likely judges would lean in their favor.”  
  
“Yeah, I know.”  
  
“But…”  
  
“Kay. I’m in the Watch. I’m working with Ciara. We are allowed to enter. And most of the contestants in the earlier matches won’t be able to identify me. It’s not like it’s prohibited any of us enter anyway.”  
  
“They could try to use the time we’re here against us. Ciara can make her presence minimal. Rowan has a glamor. Lir isn’t identifiable except by the few that actually saw them at Court and that probably isn’t many. That and they have protection. I don’t have anything on me to give to you right now that would work in this instance.”  
  
“So give me a charm later.”  
  
Kailyn fell quiet.  
  
“You know they aren’t going to make it past the second round don’t you? They barely made it out of their qualifying match. They’re too fucked up right now to try to win this thing. I honestly just hope they get knocked out early, it’d save them a little energy.”  
  
“Anora please.” They begged, “Even if they can’t make it…”  
  
“We’d be relying on Rowan and I know he could do this. But I can’t completely trust that. Besides, the more people we have in this that do well the better shot we have right?”  
  
“At getting protection? Maybe, but we’ll be spread real thin in the meantime. I don’t like those odds.”  
  
“I don’t like the odds of either situation. But if we are going for this, might as well go all in.”  
  
Kailyn’s jaw tightened. Anora knew better than to ask at this point. There were probably too many outcomes riding on what they were doing right now, and while Kailyn knew exactly how fae worked, they didn’t always have the best gauge on everyone else. It made fairy witches very dangerous, but very limited in other ways. And after their conversation Kailyn had refused to do any more divination. That was honestly for the best, but she was still curious.  
  
“What aren’t you saying?”  
  
Kailyn turned and smiled a little, but shook their head, “Not this time, sorry. I don’t get information easily and I can’t say anything about this.”  
  
Anora sighed and adjusted the armor one more time. Then headed for the exit to the tent. Kay caught her arm.  
  
“Be careful ok?”  
  
“You know I’m good at keeping an eye out.”  
  
“I know.”  
  
That was all the witch would say before letting her go. Walking out to the arena that was lit by glowing torches. It was down to the last few matches of the day. Those that had won three in a row were already qualified. Well won three in a row and the judges deemed fit. This would need to be good if she was going to get in before the end of the qualifiers.  
  
Stepping into the small cordoned off area for combatants she held her breath as she waited for introductions.  
  
She didn’t have to listen to hard for her name.  
  
“Anora Fáelad…?” While the room didn’t go quiet, and she didn’t expect it to, there was definitely a small hush that went through part of the crowd.  
  
Part of this plan wasn’t just winning to gain the gifts of the royalty that controlled the city. Part of it was making sure they had a shot at drawing out Cairbre. He’d put two and two together soon enough if he heard a wolf of Ossory was competing. And she wasn’t going to shy away from the opportunity to shove her fist down his throat if he was competing.  
  
Almost feeling sorry for her opponent she stepped into the ring. Smiling bitterly she just imagined the fae knight standing before her.  
  
You will never hurt her again, she imagined saying, and then the command was given for the match to start. And oh did it start off with a bang.

 


End file.
